At least the Slayer was safe
by katdemon1895
Summary: Buffy doesn't get "volunteered" for trick or treat duty, but Willow and Xander do, and Willow had an idea...  YAHF with a warning that multiple characters have died
1. Chapter 1

A sort of challenge from Perfect Lionheart. The basic outline- Buffy is not a factor in the Halloween episode, the original suggestion was that she was sick. Willow manages to dredge up enough courage to suggest coordinated costumes for herself and Xander

I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer

-/\-

"One minute I'm free and the next I've signed away my soul to Snyder," Xander lamented as he searched through the half priced bin at the new costume shop in Sunnydale. There was a depressing lack of toy guns and the young resident of the Hellmouth was beginning to think that his two dollar costume plan was never going to be a reality.

"You didn't sign away your soul," Willow protested gently, "Snyder just has a different meaning for the word volunteering. And it could be a good thing! The kids need someone to protect them tonight and we got picked!"

She was trying not to sigh as she noted the family that was still browsing through _Ethan's_ shelves. The oldest girl of the group had taken the very last ghost costume and Xander's expression was still very dubious.

"Besides, free candy!" Willow tried, hoping to brighten up her dearest friend's countenance. The ploy worked as Xander smiled slightly.

"And we can share it with Buffy when she comes back," Willow went on and then winced as the smile disappeared as quickly as it had appeared at the mention of their blonde friend. Apparently a vampire had gotten a lucky shot the night before and had managed to break Buffy's arm while fighting. Giles had been understandably upset, an injured Slayer was a huge target after all, and had persuaded Mrs. Summers to take Buffy out of town for the rest of the week, the time that it would take to heal. Willow and Xander were unsure as to what sort of excuse Giles had used to convince Mrs. Summers that it would be alright for Buffy to miss so much of school but the important thing was that Buffy would be safe. Thankfully with Slayer healing it wouldn't take very long before Buffy was back in Slaying action and, according to Giles, Halloween was a quiet night.

"Sound good," Xander agreed, "And hey! What do you think Wills?"

Willow looked to see her friend with a very feathery pirate hat. That morning an incident involving a soda machine had resulted in her Xander shaped friend sporting a black eye but that particular bruise was now covered by an eye patch.

"It's nice," Willow agreed with some enthusiasm but her gaze was drawn to a certain bully who was buying a pre packaged pirate costume. Xander followed his friend's gaze and winced before quickly replacing the eye patch and hat.

"Okay, so pirate is a no go," Xander declared quietly so as not to draw the bully's notice. He looked through the bin again and brought out a small, strange shield, a confused frown on his face. He turned it around and Willow caught sight of her reflection in the shield. A bright smile appeared on her face.

"I know who we can be!" she proclaimed and before a bemused Xander could protest, his arms were filled with a variety of things.

"Ah Wills," Xander tried to protest but Willow was firm.

"It'll be fun," she said, "just follow my plan."

Hours later, a rather embarrassed Xander stood in front of his almost minions, wearing what Willow informed him was a Hollywood rendition of a Greek toga. The red cloth was pinned at one shoulder and left one of his sides more open than he cared to think about. White shorts saved his modesty. He wore leather sandals with little wings attached to the sides. He approved of two parts, the faux Grecian warrior helmet which covered most of his face, and a sword he had borrowed without permission from Giles. He was still unsure about the strange little shield that Willow insisted that he carry. What good was a mirror shield when vampires didn't have reflections? A bag with a mannequin's head and a few stakes inside had been tied to his waist.

He dared a glance over at his best friend. She too wore a Greek toga, though hers was deep purple and considerably longer than his and actually covered everything, except for her arms. Whereas his reached at about his knees, her toga could easily brush the ground. Rubber snakes had been interwoven into her hair which had been curled and piled up on her head and tiny bronze colored wings decorated her back. The only odd thing was the pair of sunglasses that she had donned.

"Alright troops," Xander said, bringing himself back to the current situation, "Keep in mind that the 'but you missed me' routine is very risky and should only be attempted for chocolate. Tears are key! Now, let's move out!"

The children, dressed in a variety of bright costumes, eagerly followed their strangely dressed leader. To them, he may have had a lame costume but he obviously knew what he was doing when it came to trick or treating!

Xander smiled as he led the children through the streets of Sunnydale. He had a good feeling about this.

Through the eyes of his degenerate son, Janus saw all that was about to commence and he smiled.

The next morning of course that good feeling had entirely disappeared. He and Willow had holed themselves up in her house, her parents being gone for the month. He'd pretended to be her father and she'd pretended to be Mrs. Harris and they called each other in sick. It had not been the first time they'd done so and they both knew it probably wouldn't be the last.

"At least you'll be able to help a lot more in research," Willow offered as the two of them sat awkwardly at the kitchen table, "Being able to read ancient Greek is bound to come in handy with all of those prophecies."

She refused to allow her gaze to leave the table. Only bad things could come of looking at anything. And especially bad things would come if they looked at the bag that now lay on the kitchen counter. The bag was stained a horribly familiar rusty red and both were uncomfortably aware of the occasional way the bag would _squirm_.

"Wills," Xander said with a sigh and she felt his hand under her chin and whimpered as he lifted her head to meet his gaze. She still wore her sunglasses, somehow the tinted glass did not affect her vision. She felt her eyes widen and she tried not to burst into tears in relief.

"It'll be alright Willow," Xander assured her, "You only got the real monsters last night and you won't get anything else."

"But, but, Buffy's going to have to slay me!" the red headed computer hacker whimpered, "I turned _Angel_ into stone! I'm evil! Every gorgon in recorded history has gone on only to do evil! They're considered a plague and almost right up there with the apocalypse and-"

"It was his own fault," Xander interrupted, waving her concerns aside, "He should have known better than to approach a lady with snakes in her hair. And you're not evil, you're not a plague and you're definitely not an apocalypse. You're _Willow_."

There was a hissing sound and Xander was suddenly very aware of the cold gaze of several red reptiles.

"The snakes sort of _are_ my hair Xander," Willow said quietly, shivering slightly, "At least part of it. I don't think I'll be getting haircuts anytime soon."

"Then now you have the ultimate defense against frogs," Xander said cheerfully, "We can tell Giles that a vampire hunter got Angel last night and he can break the news to Buffy. You play sympathetic best female friend and eventually she'll get over him."

"But I can't lie to Buffy!" Willow protested, pulling away from Xander, "She'll _know_ it was me! And she loves Angel!"

The young hacker seemed to catch herself.

"_Loved_ Angel," she whispered, "Oh gosh! I killed Angel!"

"How many vampires have you staked Willow?" Xander asked, seemingly out of the blue.

"Maybe a dozen?" Willow replied, "I'm not sure."

"You have sought out and successfully gotten rid of vampires. You are therefore a vampire hunter," the Scooby proclaimed, "So it's not a lie that a vampire hunter took dead boy out."

Willow whimpered again and her tiny bronze wings fluttered in agitation.

"Willow, it's better this way," Xander insisted, "Look, ignore the star crossed issue, what is a vampire?"

"A corpse that houses a minor blood demon from the second circle of the eighth hell sideways purple and five shades clockwise from the two hundred and twenty third star widdershins from Pluto," Willow answered automatically.

Xander gave his friend a look that expressed exactly how he felt concerning her knowledge of the location of the hell where vampire blood demons came from. A though struck him.

"Purple?" he asked.

"Purple," Willow said with a nod, "I'm not sure what that part means exactly. Giles only spluttered and started to clean his glasses."

"Purple, probably bad, okay," Xander said with a nod, "Makes sense."

"But I like purple!" Willow protested.

"If purple leads to the hell that Angel came from, then purple is evil," Xander said stubbornly.

"But Angel has a soul!" Willow protested.

"But souls do not come from this purple place, at least not as far as I'm aware. And Angel had a soul that was stuck in close quarters with a _demon _that did come from the purple place," Xander said firmly, "they were driving each other insane! The soul felt guilty and suicidal and the demon probably felt pissed off and suicidal. After all, sort of creature falls in love with another that is specifically designed to kill his species?"

Willow's eyes widened behind the shaded glass.

"How would you feel if you had a demon inside you?" the self proclaimed Zeppo went on, "How would you feel if, for more than one hundred years, that demon used your body, your face, to rape and murder and torture, and then you had to live with the idea that you did all that, how would you be?"

Willow took her friend's speech into consideration.

"You don't like Angel just because of more than just jealousy, huh?" Willow said quietly. Xander smiled depreciatively.

"I do like Buffy," Xander admitted, "I don't think I ever made that a secret. And I was jealous, still am, a little at least. But, when it all boils down Wills, I'm a teenage boy almost on the bottom of the totem pole. Angel was older, cooler, stronger and he just swoops in and even you pay more attention to him than you do me. But last night made me think a bit more. Last night, I was willing to give up everything for my mother. I knew what it was like to have a mother that wasn't drunk all the time that didn't…"

Willow stood to draw her friend into a hug. Even her hair seemed solemn. She was aware of what Xander's parents did to him and it killed her that no matter what she tried, somehow, her best friend was apparently stuck with those creatures that claimed to be human.

They remained like that for a little while until Xander drew back.

"I remember Andromeda," Xander went on with a wistful smile that made Willow's heart ache.

_Another one I can't compete against_ came the treacherous, involuntary thought and her snakes began to hiss. She quickly pushed it back and reached up to pet and soothe her hair.

"and I remember more than just the way I cared for my mother and how she was actually worthy of being called a mother. I remember how Perseus felt when he first saw Andromeda," Xander said, "I know what Perseus would do for Andromeda and if Angel's soul felt for Buffy even half of the way that Perseus felt for Andromeda then he would have stayed away. He had a demon inside of him, one that's held back by a curse."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Willow asked, her voice small.

"Wills, how easy it is to break a curse?" Xander asked.

"Well, it depends on the strength of the caster and what exactly the curse is doing," Willow began but stopped at Xander's look.

"Pretty easy," Willow admitted, "In order for a curse to even be cast, there has to be some way of undoing it. From what I can tell, all magic is like that. The curse that made us into our costumes should have been broken last night but,"

The snake haired hacker felt the blood drain from her face.

"Angel's soul…" she whispered and Xander nodded.

"It's better this way," Xander said firmly, "Angel's soul is free, his demon is gone to wherever demons go after the vampire is destroyed. We'll help Buffy get over him and she'll be safer because of this."

Willow smiled slightly.

"Buffy will be safe," she repeated.

They spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how to hide Willow's new hair without disturbing anything. They also tried to figure out what to do with bag and its contents. The bag was easy enough to deal with. Willow put it into a cooler and stuck it in her attic and then they both tried not to think about it. Her hair was more of a problem and the wings were tricky as well.

The only break from these tasks was when Xander left for a few hours and when he returned he was covered in dust, dust that Willow tried very hard not to compare to the color of the stone that she had turned Angel into.

The next day, Willow managed to persuade her hair to remain still, all it took was a few mice from the pet shop, and she'd figured out a way to hide her new wings, which were thankfully quite small. Thankfully no one commented on her sunglasses though just to be sure, Willow made a mental note to forge a doctor's note for the teachers informing them that she had some sort of critical eye condition that required her to wear the glasses at all times for the time being.

Xander agreed to inform Giles about Angel and the two men shared a moment of pretending that they weren't completely ecstatic at this development.

"So, yeah, you get to tell Buffy about what happened on Halloween," Xander said when they'd finished their moment.

"Of course I, what?" Giles demanded and he gave Xander a hard look.

"Well, you _are_ her Watcher," Xander said innocently, "And therefore you're the one that gives Buffy all the demony information. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Angel was a demon so you get to inform her."

"Nevertheless, I hardly think it appropriate for me to, to inform her when Angel happen to be, erm," Giles searched for the right sort of word that would describe the blood sucking pedophile without calling him such.

"Demon," Xander said bluntly, "Oh and the spell left Willow with cat eyes. She's wearing sunglasses to hide them so Cordy won't rag on her too much about them."

"Oh?" Giles asked, "Perhaps I can take a look? What sort of creature did she dress up as last night? I'm afraid I never saw her costume."

"No, no, you've got enough on your plate," Xander deflected effortlessly, "And Willow doesn't mind the change in her eyes. She's got way better night vision. She just doesn't want to be mistaken for a demon."

"Perhaps a glamour, I'll teach her later," Giles offered and Xander smiled.

"I'll tell her, after you tell Buffy about Angel," the goofy boy said, "Now, I've got to see a lady about an English project."

With that the boy left the library and Giles. He had good news to tell Willow.

-/\-

And there you have it, Willow's now a gorgon while Xander still has bits from a son of Zeus, not sure how I want to continue this, or if I do, hope you like it though!


	2. Chapter 2

All of you are amazing, thank you for taking the time to read this story and I hope it lives up to your expectations

I don't own Buffy, just borrowing the characters for a bit

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Rupert Giles, Watcher of the current Slayer, did not care what Xander Harris said. He certainly was _not_ using Willow's magic lessons as an excuse to avoid talking to Buffy about the demise of her would be suitor. The very idea was completely preposterous. After all, everyone knew that glamours were actually part of a very complex branch of magic. Teaching Willow such advanced spells without giving her a firm grounding in the basics would be irresponsible. It would be especially irresponsible since they did currently live over a Hellmouth patrolled by a slayer. Everyone knew that a Hellmouth was already prone to corrupting any magic user within a twenty kilometer radius. And a Hellmouth with a Slayer was even stronger, spewing out its evil much like a boil oozing pus after being lanced, thus even more likely to infect anyone open to the mystic side of things with its evil. It was the _responsible_ thing to properly instruct young Willow in the basics before he let her advance to something like a glamour.

That those magic lessons on top of training the Slayer, researching potential future threats, and actually fulfilling his duties as a librarian kept him too busy to mention to Buffy that a vampire she happened to know had been dusted certainly wasn't his fault. He was just too busy, so busy that he'd even become desperate enough to go through a few simple sword drills with the ever cheerful boy so he could go through those very drills with Buffy. And no, teaching Xander those drills had not been a bribe to make the Hellmouth native stop mentioning the Angel issue and teasing him about actually being too scared to tell his slayer about such a silly little detail.

Perhaps forcing the Californian boy to use those drills against Buffy was a bit cruel, but if it meant that Buffy was forced to actually slow down and learn the drills properly rather than just relying on her speed to hide any sloppiness from her watcher, well, Giles couldn't find it in himself to be unhappy about it. It was just an added perk that the sword drills, as well as the other exercises that Giles had assigned to him with the assurance that they would help his sword work, often left Xander too tired to snark or think up more ridiculous nicknames. Giles was also aware that Xander was perhaps the best of his three students when it came to secrets but the watcher couldn't help but hope, not that he'd acknowledge such a hope, that perhaps during the sword drills, the brunette boy might just happen to let it slip that he knew what had happened to Angel.

Xander was well aware of Giles's hopes and was prepared to play along since it meant the older man was not only teaching to fight, but was also letting him keep the sword he'd "borrowed" during Halloween. But he was equally prepared to smash the librarian's hopes into little pieces. While he'd convinced Willow that they could get away with telling Buffy that a random vampire hunter had destroyed the souled demon, that didn't mean that he was going to actually inform her anytime soon. Xander was well aware that Angel didn't have a track record for being reliably found so if the vampire didn't show up anytime soon, it wasn't as though Buffy was going to question the fact.

Willow was unaware that Xander's sword lessons and her lessons in magic may or may not have been Giles's way of dodging the bullet when it came to informing the mercurial slayer about Angel's more permanent demise. She was a bit too busy with her own balancing act. Because Giles insisted that glamours were too dangerous to attempt without proper grounding, Willow had to constantly make sure her hair was fully hidden under a hat, that her sunglasses were always firmly in place and that her wings, painful as it was, were firmly bound against her back and hidden beneath thicker sweaters or a trench coat that Xander had procured for her. With anything else, she looked as though she'd developed a hump. Thankfully, she wasn't the only one who'd started to dress to conceal.

However, those other people who needed to hide certain new attributes were of no concern to one Buffy Anne Summers. As far as Buffy was concerned, all this new modesty swing meant was that more guys would give her a second glance and that it was her duty to maintain certain fashion standards in Sunnydale High School. She knew that Willow was worried about something but, in typical Buffy fashion, she didn't think it was anything serious or anything she needed to hear about.

Whatever Willow's problems were, they weren't as important as a Slayer's problems, like Angel's disappearance and her own social standing. Cordelia's snarking about the sudden rise in unfashionable geeks and nerds made Buffy feel self-conscious. The blonde former cheerleader was well aware that she was on good terms fashion wise, vampire ash and demon blood notwithstanding. She was convinced if Willow dressed more fashionably then Cordelia would harp on the others who were at the bottom of the totem pole. Even months after her fall from high school royalty, it still rankled upon Buffy to be considered one of the geeks, nerds, and outcasts that she'd once ruled over. But if she could just get a little bit away from the bottom, she knew that things would be better. Of course the Slayer was well aware that she wouldn't get anywhere using this argument with Willow. Now any conversation they had revolved around two issues- Angel's continued absence and Buffy's belief that skimpier was better in terms of fashion.

"If you don't show a little something you'll _never_ catch anyone's attention!" Buffy pouted as Willow drew her coat closer to her body, trying to shield herself from Buffy's unwanted help. They were at the mall, Buffy had guilted Willow to come using the whole "I never see you anymore, you're always too busy learning Watchery things from Giles!" Willow had no defense against guilt and had caved. She soon regretted it as Buffy dragged her from clothes store to clothes store. Now the perky blonde was closing in with a halter top and Willow was getting frantic.

"Buffy," Willow sighed, "Please, I just can't! It's not me!"

"Well being you hasn't worked out in catching a certain someone's attention yet," Buffy said, not noticing as Willow's face fell at her carelessly unkind remark. The blonde Slayer did, however, frown and cock her head, as if trying to listen for something.

"Willow, do you hear something hissing?" the former Hemery cheerleader asked. Willow bit back a squeak and she reached up to push her hat further down over her irritated hair.

"No!" the red headed computer hacker declared, "No hissing! Not at all! Well, I've got to go, needtofinishmyhistoryreportbye!"

Later that night, Willow accompanied Xander on a walk through Sunnydale. She'd released her hair from the confines of her hat, trusting the Sunnydale syndrome and avoidance of Buffy to hide the issue that her hair sometimes twisted and twined about her head.

"I'm not learning fast enough," Willow sighed as Xander kept watch around them, "And Buffy's getting suspicious."

"Why?" Xander asked, looking into the mirror side of his shield. Somehow the artifact had not changed back into cheap plastic and everything was reflected in the mirror side. He could even see vampires in his mirror shield. Neither he nor Willow could quite figure out why that was but neither of them was going to look a gift horse in the mouth and Xander got the feeling it wasn't something to mention to Giles.

"I mean," Xander went on, "It's not like there aren't other girls who've broken my heart by covering their lovely selves up when before they mostly dressed like Buffy."

"Well, you sort of want to cover yourself up with you have scales or fur or feathers," Willow said dryly, "the drama club decided to use Halloween as an advertisement for their would be latest production."

"What's that got to do with fur and feathers?" Xander asked. Willow was distracted from answering as a vampire had apparently decided that the couple was a tempting target. That Xander was openly carrying a sword and shield and that Willow's hair was _moving_ hadn't seemed to register. The vampire didn't live long to regret it as Xander cleanly sliced through his neck. Ash blew over them and Willow made a face as it managed to get in her mouth.

"Ugh!" she began to spit to try to get the taste of vampire ash out of her mouth, "Xander!"

"Sorry Wills," Xander was spitting as well, "Not like I _planned_ for the wind to be moving in just the right way so we'd get covered."

"Still!" Willow pouted slightly as her hair began to writhe, reflecting her own agitation.

"Fine," Xander rolled his eyes, "Next time I'll just cut off a few arms before I make sure that they won't do that all over us."

Willow involuntarily laughed slightly at Xander's proclamation.

"You are faster than you were before," she mused and then blinked and took a closer look at her friend, "Xander? How are you faster? That vampire was using full speed against us. He was a minion, I know, but a vampire is way faster than a human and-"

"I know," Xander sighed, "Giles has me doing sword work outs with Buffy, I'm trying to get him to teach me some stuff to do without the sword too."

"You know, you could always learn on your own," Willow pointed out.

"Like there are any places to learn how to fight in Sunnydale," Xander snorted, "Remember when that karate school opened up a few years ago?"

"Yeah," Willow sighed, "That fire was pretty awful."

Her eyes widened.

"You don't think it might have been because of a demon do you?" she gasped.

"Huh," Xander began dryly, "destroy the place that might teach kids how to defend themselves. On the one hand, it might make someone more cocky if a vampire came up to them, they might think that they could handle whatever so hey, free happy meal. On the other hand, if they're turned, who wants a vampire that might know how to do more than depend on his own speed and strength? I mean, I know that the vamps that Buffy usually takes down can do something."

"Childer are usually chosen because their sires see something special in them," Willow said quietly, "And there's some evidence that the blood demons have innate fighting knowledge."

"Yeah, but how many times have we seen a vamp break his hand because he didn't know how to throw a punch?" Xander laughed and Willow giggled as well. It was true that there were more inept vampires than people thought. They were complacent, relying on speed and strength, so when faced with someone who know what they were doing and knew what they were up against, well, it often gave the human enough of an edge to not get eaten at least during the first encounter. Willow and Xander both kept a tally of the number of times a vampire had broken his, or more usually, her hand while fighting Buffy. At the end of the month, whoever had noticed the most broken hands would be treated to ice cream by the one who was less observant.

Another vampire chose believe that he was being clever when, instead of going after the sword bearing man, he jumped at the girl with the strange hair. Unfortunately for him, snake bites hurt even when you're a demon possessed corpse and when he'd backed off long enough to regroup from the snakes, it was all the time Willow needed to give him her new glare. Sunnydale quickly had a new statue to decorate its streets.

"So what was that about the drama club?" Xander asked as they continued on their walk.

"They were going to put on a play that someone found in the stuff the last drama teacher left behind," Willow answered and both grimaced as they remembered what had happened to the last drama teacher, Ms. Rhineheart. The poor woman had been a victim of a particularly nasty creature which devoured livers, lungs and eyes. Buffy hadn't found it until it was too late for the unfortunate teacher.

"Oh?" Xander prompted.

"Yeah, it was going to be a musical mash up of fairy tales," Willow sighed, "There was going to be a song and dance number with a bunch of forest animals and a princess. Snyder got them all to volunteer too and they decided to use the whole thing to advertise. But Snyder wouldn't let them use school costumes so I guess they went to Ethan's. The ones who still think they're animals are at home, though I think a few were taken to an asylum. The others couldn't convince their parents to let them stay. Most think that the glue and paint they used in their costumes just aren't washing off."

"What about the princess? Did someone dress up as her?" Xander asked.

"Sally Ross," Willow replied, "She's in a coma now. She had some sort of weird reaction to the applesauce from lunch."

"Maybe we can get whoever was the prince for the play to kiss her," Xander suggested as they continued their walk.

"Maybe," Willow agreed though she sounded doubtful. There'd been a lot of kids who hadn't returned to school the day after Halloween and she'd checked the school records to find those who were just staying home. After she'd pared down the missing list to those who didn't have an excuse, she and Xander had checked through town for any new statues. She still wasn't sure if she should be grateful or not that they'd only found three human shaped statues while the rest were supposed all demons. Real demons, not people who'd dressed up as demons. Still, that was three people who she'd killed.

The three people they'd found weighed heavily on Willow's mind. Xander had recognized one of them, Warren Mears dressed as a Jedi, and both of them had recognized the surprised stone face of Harmony Kendall dressed as a dog. Neither of them had recognized Willow's third victim, another girl, this one with curly hair and an old fashioned dress. Unlike Warren and Harmony, who'd both looked surprised, the third girl looked happy.

The red headed hacker could only pray that they didn't find any more statues. The ones she'd created already weighed heavily enough on her conscience. She wasn't sure if she'd ever be able to make up for what she'd done while under the influence of that horrible spell.

"So, what to do about Buffy's make over craze?" Xander sighed, "You could always wear shorter skirts."

Willow turned red at the idea.

"I need the jacket," Willow said firmly, "I shouldn't let anyone see my wings."

"When will Giles teach you those glamour spells?" Xander asked.

"I'm not sure," Willow sighed, "He says that I have more power than he expected so I need to concentrate on control first."

"Maybe the spell will eventually wear off?" Xander suggested. Willow shrugged.

"If it doesn't then hopefully Giles will come up with a counter. He knows that I don't look normal right now," Willow said, "and that others are still under the spells effects, sort of. He plans to check on them. But Giles says that since I'll eventually be able to hide, my changes aren't as high of a priority as the kids who think they're animals."

Xander winced.

"Sorry Wills," he said, "I didn't think telling Giles that you just had cat eyes would mean he wouldn't work on breaking the curse on you."

Willow shrugged.

"Easier to hide myself then Giles or someone deciding that it would be easier to slay me than break the curse," Willow pointed out, "Though I don't think that Giles would let Buffy slay me."

The pair was silent for a moment.

"Oh!" Willow gasped at last, "Not that I think Buffy would slay me! We're friends. Of course she wouldn't slay me!"

Xander just laughed at her. He continued to laugh as a few more vampires decided to try their luck against the odd couple. While the couple continued to cut a swath through the idiot vampires who alternately were turned to dust or stone, neither of them noticed one lone vampire with a video camera.

Eventually the pair retired to Willow's house. Shortly after Halloween Xander had discovered that his house had become infested with snakes. This event had allowed Willow to discover that she could speak to snakes and she tried to reason with the foreign serpents. They refused to listen to her and, as a number of them were endangered, she had been reluctant to turn them to stone in order to get rid of them. She liked it when Xander stayed at her house, it made the large building seem less empty. Her parents never noticed that the guest room was in use anyway. Xander liked Willow's house as well. It didn't smell like smoke and alcohol and his parents never noticed any more than Willow's parents noticed.

As the two entered the house, neither of them saw that the video camera vampire had left them. Eventually the vampire, a former electrician named Bob, returned to the warehouse district and presented his sire, a furious blonde vampire in a leather duster, with camera.

The blonde snarled at him and quickly began to play the tape.

As he watched the two figures destroy vampires, he seemed to go very still. But his eyes were still filled with an unholy rage.

"They're dead," he declared to his minions as they all obediently watched the video with their master, "Do you hear me? _DEAD_!"

At his roar a few of the more timid minions jumped back slightly. The blonde stalked towards one minion, a girl who'd unfortunately dyed her hair red. He ran his hand along her cheek and cupped her face briefly. The minion didn't even have the time to whimper before his hand reached her neck and he tore her throat out.

"Kill them, kill their families, get rid of them," the man growled out as the ash of the minion floated through the warehouse.

No one moved. He glared.

"NOW!"

The minions scrambled.

-/\-

And now you have chapter two and I have to admit really quick that I only have a general direction planned for this story and I have a number that I'm trying to balance as well as school work. However, I hope that I will not disappoint.


	3. Chapter 3

I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or anything that you recognize and I'm truly flattered by how much interest this story has gained, I really hope you continue to like it!

-/\-

"Well, golly, this is interesting," announced a figure who looked like a middle aged white man- good posture, clean cut, thinning brown hair, everything about him screamed politician. He and men who looked similar, though for the most part they were less tidy and much more subservient, were examining several statues. They were mostly figures of men in the act of leaping and their faces were horrific masks of fangs and ridges, completely inhuman. One of these horrific statues had lost its arm and several of them had little marks where skin showed, as if they had been bitten.

"Well now," the man said, "when's the last time we had something who could turn people to stone?"

Though his tone seemed happy, his minions trembled and a few edged away.

"Er, fifty years ago Mayor Wilkins," one particularly wimpy looking man said. He had sweat stains under his arms and was constantly tugging at the tie around his neck, as though it was choking him or preventing him from getting enough air, "There was a newly opened exhibition in the museum centering around Ancient Greek art. Some wizard thought it would be funny to turn his girlfriend, who was a guide at the museum, into a pseudo-gorgon."

"That's right," the Mayor said genially, "I got to make an early payment to-"

Three of the minions exploded as the Mayor named one of his patrons.

"And we got some very nice new statues for the Wilkins Memorial Park," the Mayor went on, as if he didn't notice that he'd lost three of his yes creatures, "Until we figured out the counter spell. How's that going by the way?"

"Um," the wimpy man began and he pulled at his collar now, revealing fluttering gills, "Um, well."

"Gosh Tim, what's wrong?" the Mayor asked in a kind tone.

"T-the counter spells aren't working sir," Tim cowered, "The mages are trying, but nothing's working!"

Mayor Wilkins frowned as he considered this new information.

"Is there any reason why we haven't been able to counter this?" he asked, "After all, it wouldn't do for the constituency to turn to stone before the big event!"

"W-w-well," Tim began, he'd looked around to see if anyone else would speak up. The other minions were very consciously avoiding his gaze.

Tim the fish man cleared his throat.

"We don't know," he managed to squeak.

"Well Tim, there's no shame in admitting that you don't know something," the Mayor said like a parent to a small child, "and I'm confident that you'll find out, won't you?"

He looked over all of his remaining minions and they all nodded eagerly.

"Of course!" Tim squeaked.

"Good," the Mayor smiled.

Willow and Xander were, of course, completely unaware of this new way for Willow's parents' tax money to be put to work. Both were at the Rosenburg house since the venomous snakes still refused to vacate the Harris residence. Xander's parents had long since vacated the area, abandoning their son, in favor of Las Vegas. Xander was unconcerned, it wasn't as though any of the school staff was going to notice, or really care if they did. So he and Willow were both getting a well deserved rest in her parent's home. Or at least, they were trying to.

In the dead of the night, Willow tossed and turned in her bed. Her hair writhed in agitation and as she whimpered, objects began to float around her room.

Finally, with a scream, the hacker jerked away. Her eyes were unseeing as she tried to remember how to breathe, tried to remember anything besides the torments of her mind. In an instant, Xander came into her room, having heard her scream from his own room.

"Willow!" he shouted, bursting in, sword and shield in hand. She didn't notice as she stared at nothing, a hand clutching at her heart as she tried to breath. Xander scanned the room for whatever had caused his friend such torment but he saw nothing.

"Willow?" Xander said again, in a gentler tone. This seemed to catch her attention and she looked at him and he reflexively raised his shield to hide his eyes from her unprotected gaze. She saw the sword in one hand and the mirror shield in the other and shrieked.

"Don't kill me!" Willow shrieked, "Please! Athena! Artemis! Gods, don't let him kill me!"

She fell out of her bed as she desperately scrambled to get away from the figure that was her best friend and the center of her nightmares.

"Wills!" Xander said, aghast at his friend's horror as she fell out of her bed. She'd seemed to forget how to even open a door as she tried to scramble away from him, clawing at the window door that would lead her to her balcony. When her frantic motions didn't work she moved away to a corner of her room. He closed his eyes and dropped both his sword and shield.

"Willow!" Xander snapped for the fourth time, "Please! Come on! It's just me, Xander! I'm not going to kill you!"

Willow remained huddled against the wall, her petrifying gaze unseeing, her mind trapped in the nightmares.

"Xander," Willow whimpered into the darkness, "Xander, he's going to kill me, the gods want him to kill me. Goddess, don't let him kill me. What did I do? What did I do wrong? Why couldn't I stop him? Why didn't she?"

"Nothing Wills," Xander said soothingly as he crawled over to the small girl, "You didn't do anything wrong. No one's going to kill you. You're safe, you're perfectly safe."

He finally reached out blindly to his oldest friend and but pulled back slightly as he could feel one of her snakes give him a warning nip.

"You're safe Willow," Xander repeated, hoping the snakes would back off soon, "Just tell me who you think wants to kill you and I'll make sure you stay safe."

"Perseus," Willow whispered in a voice that Xander realized wasn't her own, "Perseus wants to kill me. The gods want him to kill me. I've been alone so long, so alone, why didn't Athena stop him? Why did she curse me instead? It isn't fair, why did she hate me so much?"

"Who didn't Athena stop?" Xander asked, but his blood ran cold as the memories of Perseus, his memories, answered the question for him.

"Poseidon," Willow whispered in a small voice, as if terrified to even mention the name, "I begged for him to stop, I didn't want him. Why wouldn't he stop? Maybe Perseus killing me is Athena's mercy."

"No Wills," Xander murmured to her, "No, come on Willow, wake up. Willow, you're not Medusa. This didn't happen to you. You're Willow Rosenburg, not Medusa. The gods aren't punishing you Willow, I swear it. There's no reason for them to punish you. Come on Willow, wake up."

He kept repeating these words over and over again to his shocked friend and, bracing himself for her snakes, he wrapped his arms around her. Both of them jumped as the action caused static electricity to jump from him to her and for a moment her snakes went limp.

"Xander?" Willow squeaked, the jolt of electricity having gone straight through her and throwing her into wakefulness.

"It happened again Willow," Xander sighed and he winced as he felt Willow stiffen again.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Not your fault," the boy who'd had the yellow crayon insisted firmly, "It's that bastard Ethan's. And you know I don't mind, as long as you don't mind the occasional static shock."

"But I keep waking you up," Willow protested, ignoring the reference to the increase electrical jolts that occurred whenever Xander touched someone, "It's those nightmares."

"Medusa's memories," Xander agreed, "And why is it you keep getting new ones?"

"Medusa lived a long time," Willow said quietly, "A really long time. She was the only mortal gorgon but that only meant she was the only one able to die and it wouldn't happen from old age. That was Poseidon's part of things."

"Bastard," Xander growled and he felt Willow nod.

"His part to punish Medusa for not giving into him," Willow told him sadly, "She would have to live with what he did to her for all eternity. Maybe it's not such a bad thing that Perseus killed me."

"Medusa," Xander corrected, "I, he, killed Medusa, not you Wills."

He didn't, couldn't, see the way Willow's gaze was trained on his sword.

"We should get back to sleep Xan," Willow said after a moment, "We have a math test tomorrow."

Xander groaned theatrically as he started to move away from his friend.

"Anything but that!" Xander moaned, "I'd rather take Theseus's task and face the minotaur than deal with another algebra equation!"

Willow giggled slightly.

"It won't be that bad," she said, allowing herself to be distracted, "We've been going over the material."

"Yeah, I know," Xander sighed, "But still, when are we going to use this stuff in real life?"

Though his eyes were closed, he automatically raised a hand to forestall Willow's usual arguments. She closed her mouth with a small snap and smiled though she rolled her eyes.

"Never," he answered his own question firmly, "I will never use algebra in real life."

He smiled blindly in the direction he could hear faint hissing.

"Sleep well Wills," he said and he turned away, tripping over his shield before making it to the door. With a small curse he opened his eyes enough to see his shield and sword and collected them before he left.

Neither of them noticed the new statue on Willow's porch, nor would they notice it until the next morning. Though since the new statue had a vampire's face and was carrying a can of gasoline, neither of them cared. Xander made quick work of it and Willow's parents had some new gravel in their driveway and a full tank of gas. They then hurried to get ready. It was after all, unfortunately, a school day. Willow was eager to learn more from Giles, hopefully the glamour spell would be included in that day's lessons. Xander, on the other hand, was determined to convince Giles that sword work and the exercises associated were all well and good, but he needed to learn more! And he had a feeling that, despite the math test and Willow's nightmares, this was going to be a good day.

But life on the Hellmouth could not give him that good day. He was proven very wrong just before lunch with the appearance of a boy who called himself Ford. His appearance threw a dark cast across the rest of the day and a very grumpy Xander appeared before Giles for further instruction. Giles himself wasn't very pleased with this appearance of a former schoolfellow of Buffy's, though he would not say why. But he did reluctantly agree to teach Xander further.

Of course, this was after Giles had extracted the promise from the young sophomore that he wouldn't try to fight vampires on his own. Giles could easily remember more than a few cocky would be watchers and wanna be hunters who'd overestimated their own martial ability and underestimated the speed and strength of a typical vampire.

The two men went out to the school track and Xander began to work through the stretches that Giles had shown him when they first began to train. Giles had forgone his usual tweed for a track suit and it was taking all of Xander's concentration to not laugh at his teacher and the only positive male influence outside of his memories of being Perseus.

"Let's continue with running," Giles said to his male almost protégé as they warmed up, "You're aware that I've only been requiring a good time with a mile. Now we're going to increase that."

"What do you mean?" Xander asked warily.

"You're going to work your way up to running _continuously_ for five miles to start," Giles answered, "After that, running the distance within a set time and after that I'd prefer you to just keep pushing yourself to run further and further within your best time."

Xander didn't bother to withhold his groan but when Giles gave him a look, he did get started. If this is what it took to get Giles to take him seriously and for him to get better so he could better protect the people he cared for, then he would do it. At least he wouldn't be up before dawn to fish and do the endless chores that he remembered Perseus doing. And he wouldn't have to travel all over the world to get rid of evil, it would come to him. The Perseus part of him grumbled at the fact that all of this was done in secret. There would be no songs, no glory for Xander Harris. Even before Halloween, Xander had a little trouble with the lack of acknowledgement. He knew that while Willow could help with the tech part of things and Giles was master of the musty books of doom and gloom, he was a valuable part of the Scooby team!

And then there was Ford.

Xander unconsciously growled and put on a burst of speed, pulling away from Giles who had been running next to him, as he thought of this new transfer student. He just came in and Buffy seemed to immediately forget about him and Willow. He felt some comfort from the fact that Willow was actually relieved and welcomed this distraction. But it grated at him to be so easily forgotten by the girl he saw as a hero.

Giles watched as the sarcastic boy ran faster and faster ahead of him, apparently giving no heed to the idea of pacing himself. He expected the Twinkie obsessed side kick to stop fairly soon as he increased his speed, but he just kept running around the school track.

In fact, Giles was right, Xander wasn't thinking about pacing himself. Instead he concentrated on moving, thinking only about his breathing and the way his muscles were burning, doing his best to work at thinking about nothing. It was far better than thinking about the way Buffy simpered over everything that had to do with her friend from LA. Eventually, as he ran, he found a point where he could distance himself. His body ran automatically as his mind became almost blank. He faintly wondered if this was how Willow felt when she meditated. If so, he could understand why his cursed friend would fall into such a trance during history and health now instead of poking him to make sure he remained awake. Well, there was also added bonus of Giles telling her that the more she meditated the faster she'd be able to master the basics. And of course, if she meditated, she didn't have to sleep as much which meant that she didn't have to deal with those damned nightmares as much.

And then Ford popped up in his mind again. He _knew_ there was something off about him. And, okay he had a bad track record when it came to suspicions about boys around the girl he'd lusted after her. But while he still believed that Buffy was pretty, and he'd never admit this to anyone lest they think him odd, she just didn't do it for him anymore. Maybe it was the fact that she still lusted after the dead, even though she knew full well that dead boy had been a vampire. And it was emasculating the way that the last time he'd gone on patrol with her, she'd immediately dismissed him as a potential liability and nearly torn his arm from its socket when she'd grabbed him away from the vampire he'd been fighting so she could take over.

So wrapped up in his thoughts, Xander never noticed that Buffy and Ford had arrived to join Giles. He also didn't notice when Ford though it would be funny to add one of the track team's hurdles to the route as he ran. Giles thought that Xander would simply jump over the obstacle and Buffy looked uninterested in the entire affair. Unfortunately for Xander, he was so distracted by his thoughts, he ran straight into it.

"Xander!" Willow cried, arriving just in time to see her best friend get tangled up and fall to the ground. For a moment the woman with red snakes for hair wanted to take off her sunglasses and turn that horrible friend of Buffy's into stone.

"Xander!" Buffy squeaked moments after Willow and she joined the cursed girl in checking over their mutual friend. Giles, in the meantime, ran off the track to get the med kit.

"Hey, I'm okay! I'm okay!" Xander insisted as he tried to extract himself from the well meaning hands of his friends. He winced as Buffy prodded a particularly sore spot.

"You're not okay!" Willow protested hotly, "You're _bleeding_!"

"I'm sorry!" Ford came up to the trio. Willow didn't dare look at him. She could feel her snakes fighting against the confines of her hat, wiggling to try to get loose and use their momentum to force her at the one who'd hurt her friend. She was discovering that having hair which reflected her most volatile emotions, emotions that she worked hard to bottle up and repress, was rather annoying. It was especially annoying when she really, really wanted to indulge her snakes and let them bite the one who deliberately hurt Xander!

"What were you thinking?" Willow demanded.

"Will, I'm sure it was just a joke," Buffy said weakly.

"It was!" Ford jumped on the excuse as Giles returned bearing hydrogen peroxide, bandages and other useful things. Willow snatched them from his hands and immediately began the process of cleaning and bandaging Xander's scrapped and bruised outside.

"It's a miracle that you don't seem to have anything broken," Willow snapped, "You don't have anything broken, do you Xander?"

"Can't feel anything broken," Xander said soothingly, he'd noticed the way her hat was wiggling, "And nothing hurts when I move it."

He moved enough away from Willow so he could stand up and he jumped a little, much to Willow's continued distress as the action helped the blood to increase its flow.

"Nope," Xander winced, "Just skin breakage."

"And it could have easily been bone breakage!" Giles said reprovingly, casting a disapproving glance over Buffy's outsider friend.

"I swear it was just a joke!" Ford said, "You were going so fast man that I wanted to see f you could handle jumping too!"

"No patrol for you tonight," Buffy said firmly to Xander, "All that blood's like a neon sign to vampires!"

"Buffy!" Willow hissed, gesturing towards Ford.

"No, it's cool," Ford said, "I know all about vampires and stuff."

Giles cast a disapproving glance at Buffy who ignored him.

"I'd think that vampires being attracted to me would be the point of playing bait," Xander interjected dryly.

"You're not bait!" Buffy protested, "I never bring you on patrol with me so you can play bait!"

"Well, if Xander can't go on patrol tonight, how about he and Willow come with me to this new club," Ford said soothingly, "They'll be safe and we'll meet up with you after your superhero routine."

Buffy pouted, not liking the idea of walking alone around Sunnydale. She'd spoken the truth, she never brought Xander and Willow along to play bait. She just hated patrolling by herself. She'd always comforted herself with the assurance that she was completely capable of keeping her friends safe. And patrol was just so boring without people to talk to that she had to have someone with her!

"Um, hey there," Xander waved his hands to bring attention back to him, "Pretty sure that whether or not I'm going hunting with Buffy is my decision."

"Perhaps Buffy does raise a good point," Giles interrupted, noting the stubborn look on Buffy's face. Willow's was a bit harder to read since most of it was hidden by her sunglasses, which she'd still refused to take off, even when it was just those who wouldn't be scared off by something like cat eyes, but he imagined that she was rather torn. Xander was very important to her after all.

"What do you mean G-man?" Xander asked warily.

"W-well, Buffy has shown herself to be more than capable of handling a few vampires at a time," Giles pointed out, "But more than one Slayer, even those who were, were, not Council trained as Buffy is not, were overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Vampires are akin to sharks, they will all hone in on the scent of blood, more than you will be able to handle, and very likely overpower Buffy."

Giles was pleased to see Xander look more hesitant. While the boy was obviously getting better, he was still only human and the librarian still hated himself for not trying harder to discourage the two Sunnydale natives to distance themselves from the Slayer. He firmly believed that it would be safer for all involved if they had. The Slayer having friends meant that the Slayer had people that could be used against her. Being friends with the Slayer meant being brought to the attention of the nastier side of the supernatural and, for all of Willow's growing talent with magic and Xander's own with a sword, they were still just two normal humans. Not only that, but Giles knew that the two were honestly good people, the sort that couldn't stand back and let evil win, but at the same time the sort that dark forces loved to take and twist and corrupt. But as it stood, he would take what he could get and if what he could get was Willow and Xander standing down for a night, that would have to do until he could convince the two to give up active patrolling. They could still help, but with research instead of fighting.

Willow was silent as she continued to fuss over Xander's injuries as a way to distract herself from doing something she'd regret.

"Come on," Ford said with a grin, "Buffy, help me convince them. There's this underground place that's really cool. And Willow, there's this guy there who's been asking about you."

Willow looked at Ford warily, unsure if the grinning boy was being truthful or not, and even more unsure if she wanted him to be telling the truth.

Buffy's eyes took on a new spark and she smiled mischievously.

"You should totally go Willow!" the blonde Slayer insisted, "Carpe diem!"

Willow made a face as she remembered the last time her friend had insisted that she seize the day, or night in either case. Buffy didn't seem to notice.

"What about you?" Willow asked desperately, interrupting Buffy's plans of what Willow would wear, "You'll be all alone! I could patrol with you!"

"Pfft," Buffy waved the fact away with a hand, "I'm the Slayer, I'll be perfectly fine."

"Maybe Giles should go with you?" Xander suggested, "Or, hey, I bet I'll be just fine and we can all go patrolling together and then go to this club that Ford's talking about."

"You'll completely heal in a few hours?" Giles asked dryly.

Xander frowned at this reminder of his injured state.

"Come on Xan," Buffy cooed, "Go with Willow to the club! I'll patrol and be with you guys before you can miss me!"

-/\-

A bit of a bridge chapter and I realize that I'm not being nice to poor Willow, I feel horrible about it, I promise and furthermore, I promise that things will get better for Willow soon! I have no intention of continuing to allow Willow to take Angel's place as broodiest character.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!


	4. Chapter 4

You guys are so nice! Thank you everyone who's reviewed and thank you all who've continued to read this story.

I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I warn you, I'm messing with the timelines here, just a smidge, certain things are being hurried up, nothing too major...yet

=/\=

There was a room in Sunnydale General Hospital, one filled with all sorts of flowers and a few bears carrying signs of "get well soon!". In it there was a young man, covered in cuts and bruises, his leg in a cast, and his heart monitor beeping sluggishly. A steady stream of people had been in to visit the boy, from the Prince of Cretins Andrew Wells to the Queen of the School, Cordelia Chase. One person had remained in the room- a young woman wearing a dark overcoat, a wide brimmed straw hat and sunglasses. She sat by his side as she had for most of the past week. A few of the nurses had tried to make her go home. But each time any of the well meaning people had entered the room with that in mind, they'd completely forgotten that she was there and had instead checked on the boy. When the nurse left the room they might have remembered the red head and try again only to repeat the pattern. This phenomenon was leading to the young man being possibly receiving the best care in the hospital.

"Hey Willow, how is he?" came a subdued voice and Willow turned to see, for the first time since she'd entered the hospital, a repentant looking Buffy who held a bouquet of flowers and carried a brown paper bag with the words _The Magic Box_ emblazoned on the side. The red head's sharp eyes caught sight of a hand shaped bruise forming on the blonde girl's arm.

"The doctors say he should wake up soon and then they'll be able to see if there was any brain damage because of the fall," Willow informed her friend, "Did you manage to find everything I asked for?"

"Yes," Buffy replied, "The shop didn't have everything so I talked to Amy and she helped me get the rest, like getting some of the plants you wanted from the florist. And I have notes from all our classes _and_ another change of clothes for you! All clothes of your specifications, none of my own touches."

Willow started to feel bad about her friends guilt. It wasn't really Buffy's fault that Ford had turned out to be a traitorous wannabe vampire. He'd been telling the truth about the boy interested in Willow. He just hadn't mentioned that boy happened to be Spike aka William the Bloody. He hadn't mentioned that Spike was inexplicably focused on Willow and had agreed to turn Ford into a vampire if it meant that the sick traitor would deliver Willow into the hands of the master vampire.

It wasn't Buffy's fault that her two non Slayer friends had almost been overwhelmed by the number of vampires that Spike had brought when he tried to subdue the pair. After all, she had ended up ditching patrol and had saved them, and a few of the other idiot vampire wannabes, from whatever Spike had planned. Just because Xander had been knocked out by a serious head injury wasn't Buffy's fault. Thankfully, before that, Buffy had managed to rough him up pretty well while Willow had managed to limp away with Xander in tow. Unfortunately, as Buffy had informed them later, he was still undead rather than dust. There had simply been too many vampires for Buffy to be able to do anything more than stall to get as many humans out as possible before locking the vampires into the bunker.

Buffy had done her best. Ford's actions weren't her fault. But, seeing Buffy for the first time since her best friend had been hurt, the snake haired hacker found her thoughts scattered. In her head she knew that none of this was Buffy's fault. But when she looked at Xander and then back at Buffy, words of comfort wouldn't come.

"Thank you Buffy," Willow sad instead, "what happened to your arm?"

_When Xander wakes up_, Willow assured herself, _when Xander wakes up, then I'll make things right with Buffy_. Willow was prepared bake a thousand cookies if she had to, but things would be right between the three of them again.

"I'll tell you later," Buffy said with a grimace, "What's all this stuff for anyway?"

"I need to talk to someone," Willow said, "And this is the best way."

She found three eggs in amongst the various herbs and crystals and candles that she'd asked Buffy to fetch.

"They're for a school assignment," Buffy explained, "they're supposed to be our babies. Since you two didn't show up today you're partners for the project."

"Who's your partner?" Willow asked politely and Buffy made a face.

"Jonathan," she admitted, "He's a little weird but he's been nice about it. You and Xander were aired together since you both missed. Cordelia's a single mother."

Willow smiled at the revelation and then set her egg aside onto a table as she continued to double check everything that Buffy had brought her.

"So who are you going to talk to?' Buffy asked as Willow prepared the ritual. Willow paused and considered things.

"Buffy, did you ever wonder how it was that Xander and I were still alive when you came to the bunker that night?" Willow asked. Buffy shrugged.

"Xander's been a lot stronger and faster lately," Buffy said in a confiding tone, "I figured that the hyena thing had left something behind and that whatever you guys dressed up as on Halloween reawakened it or something. Like the way that one Hyena kid who apparently got roped into helping the drama club was a lot harder for Giles to uncurse than some of the others."

Willow looked up sharply at Buffy.

"Giles can get rid of the curse?" she demanded and Buffy nodded happily.

"Yeah," the blond slayer confirmed, "Oh! And Spike's going to be out of commission for awhile."

"What do you mean?" Willow asked, perking up at the idea of the vampire who wanted her dead for unknown reasons being out of commission.

"A friend of Giles, at least a guy who might have been a friend of Giles, came by the school. He was all "ah!" because he was being chased by a woman who was melting," Buffy explained, "And guess what? If you can imagine it, Giles totally used to wear leather when he was our age! He was apparently into some really crazy stuff."

"But what about Spike?" Willow pressed, hoping to get her friend back on topic.

"I'm coming to that!" Buffy huffed, "Anyway, so, like I said, Giles was into some crazy stuff when he was our age! And that Ethan guy you said sold costumes on Halloween was in on it! He managed to knock me out and put this funky tattoo on my neck."

Buffy lifted her hair and turned her head to show Willow a fading mark on the back of her neck.

"Giles is helping to pay the costs to have it removed since it was his friend who did it, plus Slayer healing is apparently helping to get rid of it," Buffy said, "So, anyway, this mark is apparently sort of a sign to this demon, eggy, that whatever body has the tat is open for it to take over. Ethan wanted me to take his place as eggy's host. Of course, this isn't going to happen. And eggy can only take your body if you're unconscious, like asleep or something, or you're dead."

"So you managed to trick the demon into taking Spike as a host!" Willow gasped and Buffy pouted.

"Yeah," she said, "How'd you guess?"

"Well, you said that eggy can only take over bodies that are unconscious or dead," Willow pointed out, "And Spike's dead. But unlike a human body, as a vampire Spike has a demon already in there that can fight eggy. And I'm guessing Spike's demon won? But how did you get Spike to cooperate?"

"Yeah," Buffy confirmed, "But I didn't have to get Spike to cooperate. Eggy managed to get into Ms. Calendar. She came by the library while eggy's host was trying to get Giles and she got knocked out and eggy went inside her. She got kidnapped by some of Spike's minions."

Willow gasped but Buffy smiled.

"It's okay," Buffy said, "She's fine. Apparently Spike knocked her out and the contact when he did that was enough to make eggy jump from her to him. Me and Giles and Amy all came for her and by the time we got there, Spike's demon had gotten rid of eggy and he looked like he was in really bad shape. We got Ms. Calendar out of there, no problem."

"Did you dust Spike?" Willow asked and Buffy smiled smugly.

"I set the warehouse he was using as a base on fire," she confided in Willow, "And the newspaper said that the fire spread a lot. Vampires have fewer hideouts and even if Spike made it out as anything more solid than dust, he's in serious pain and no shape to bother any of us. And, if he's not dust, he'll be easier to track down and I'll make sure he's gone for good."

"That's great," Willow smiled brightly, "And that means there's less to patrol too?"

"Sort of," Buffy sighed, "Giles wants me to be on the lookout for what might be a gorgon."

"A, a gorgon?" Willow squeaked.

"Yeah," Buffy went on, not noticing or unable to see the way Willow had paled, "Which is seriously weird since there's only supposed to be like two in the entire world and they're locked up in some super secret place that no one knows about. So he's thinking it's more likely that it's just a wizard who got his hands on some spell that does a temporary snake lady effect. If it's a demon sorcerer then I need to make with the slaying because turning people to stone is not of the good. Human sorcerer means I have to beat him up until he undoes the spell and then get all of his books to Giles."

"What if it was an accident?" Willow asked hesitantly, "What if the gorgon or whatever is actually a good…creature?"

Buffy shook her head.

"Giles says there's no such thing as a good gorgon," Buffy said, "Unlike vampires, there's only two gorgons so I'm pretty sure that Giles is right in this case. And anyone who's turning people to stone, even by accident, is still messing with stuff that kills people."

"So what happened with your arm?" Willow asked in a desperate, and rather obvious, attempt to change the subject. Buffy gave her an odd look but, with a grimace of her own, she went along with it.

"Ted," she said with a growl, "My mom's new boyfriend."

Willow gasped.

"Buffy, you need to tell her!" Willow insisted immediately. Buffy shook her head.

"She didn't believe me and Slayer healing with get rid of this," she gestured to the bruise, "before I even make it home and then I won't have any proof. It seems that she just never catches Ted when he's doing things like this! It isn't fair!"

"Maybe a camera or something?" Willow suggested, "There are cameras everywhere inside the hospital. If he does something while you're here then you'll have proof!"

"Wills," Buffy gave her friend a dry look, "It's not like the hospital will just give me the security tape if I ask for it. And besides, I don't want to spend _more_ time in a hospital! Especially when I don't need to! It was bad enough getting my arm set and then having to convince the doctor not to tell my mother, and then there was all that awfulness getting the cast off when my arm was better because no one would believe me! And I hate hospitals, they always make me wig."

Buffy shivered, almost as if to emphasize her statement.

"You and Xander are the only reasons I go anywhere near this place," Buffy said, making a face of disgust, "Slayer healing is the only thing that makes being a Slayer worth it since it means I almost never have to come to this icksome place."

"Maybe you could try volunteering here?" Willow suggested and at Buffy's unamused look she elaborated, "I mean there's a lot of research that says that facing one's fears is the best way to deal with them and maybe if you spent more time in the hospital not being looked at by doctors then you might get some good memories all mixed in there with the bad memories and maybe you won't hate the hospital as much as you just don't like it and someday you might even like it!"

Buffy looked at her with disbelief and Willow sighed and abandoned her preparations. The ritual could wait. Buffy not liking the hospital meant that she was less likely to go to a doctor, even if seriously injured. Willow could understand part of the reticence, after all a doctor had likely been involved in Buffy's incarceration in a loony bin. But, though she'd never admit it, the cursed girl didn't want Buffy to fear something so normal. Buffy was her hero, which was a large reason as to why she would forgive her for what had happened to her in the "I wannabe a vampire" club. More important, Buffy was her friend.

However, there were selfish reasons to her sudden urge to want to help Buffy deal with her dislike, even fear, of the hospital. Being able to help Buffy with something like this also, in some small way, helped Willow. Medusa's nightmares were horrific, but her mind would sometimes combine those nightmares with her own visions of horror, terrible dreams of Warren's parents and Harmony's parents blaming her for what she did. She saw visions of turning Xander into stone, Giles, Buffy, her parents, all turned to statues, their faces locked into expressions of horror for eternity. Warren's parents had left the Hellmouth, unable to stand it. Harmony's parents were still in Sunnydale and it ate at Willow every minute of every day to know that she was the cause of their grief. She needed to help someone, and who better than her hero?

"Come on," she said as she stood from the floor.

"But what about Xander?" Buffy demanded.

"I have a charm on him," Willow said, "Basically it'll tell me if anything changes with him. Giles said it was actually first created by an ancient Etruscian healer to monitor patients."

"But you're leaving!" Buffy squeaked, "What if he wakes up? Should you still be by his side?"

Willow hunched in on herself slightly and began to question herself. Should she have stayed by Xander the entire time? She wanted to, and she'd stayed for seventy two hours straight when they'd first arrived. But, when Xander didn't talk, some little part of her, the Medusa part, wanted to run away screaming from him, and for some reason, that part was getting stronger. When she wasn't reading her homework, explaining the various processes she used to get her answers and explaining what the teachers' wanted in an assignment, she instinctually wanted to just run, run far away from the man that her the back of her mind said would kill her.

"Well, I've had to use the bathroom," Willow tried to justify as they walked, "and, and change and things."

Buffy rolled her eyes at Willow.

"Really Wills," Buffy sighed, "It's like you don't know anything about romance. You're supposed to stay by his side until you collapse or something and then when he wakes up and yours is the first face he sees…"

Buffy sighed, lost in her dreams of whatever romantic ideas she was concocting. Willow privately though such ideas were really better left to books. Staying by the bedside of a coma patient was great for the patient, if the visitor kept talking. But not leaving to use the bathroom or shower or anything? That wouldn't make for a very pretty picture and she was fairly sure her spell that made the nurses ignore her if they came to make her go away wouldn't last long if she started to smell. Never mind the emotional and psychological stress on the person waiting for the patient to wake up. She'd read enough of her parents' psychology books to understand how dangerous an overly stressed mind could be.

The two girls reached what had become Willow's haven when the echoes of Medusa's mind became too strong for the new gorgon.

The Children's Ward.

"Wills," Buffy said, "Why?"

Willow turned to see that her friend had become pale.

"I come here and read stories to the kids," Willow began to babble, "Sometimes I play games with them. One girl, Tina, she's a sweetheart. She's knitting a scarf for Xander. It's about as long as he is tall now but she wants to add a few more colors to it. And the children's ward is a great place for me to practice those protection wards that Giles has taught me, well they're not real protection wards. One of them is like what I've put on Xander's room. If anyone comes in that's going to do something besides helping the patient then they'll forget what they're doing and leave. Giles actually uses his version on the library sometimes except instead of helping patients it stops kids that don't know Buffy's the Slayer and makes them forget why they came to the library. Of course he doesn't usually keep it up during school hours. And then there's a ward which sort of just makes any sort of demon feel unsettled, sort of like the way you describe your demony sense but in reverse and creepier for the demon. They're great exercises in holding a spell for a long time. One boy, Ryan, he reminds me kinda of Xander when Xander was his age."

She didn't mention to Buffy that the stories were mostly of Buffy and Xander's exploits in slaying- the kids really enjoyed hearing about people killing monsters. She also didn't mention to Buffy that Ryan's parents reminded her of the Harris parents and that she fully intended to talk to Ms. Calendar and see if the computer teacher would help her cast a jinx. Maybe something that mimicked the symptoms of an STD but couldn't be treated? Or maybe something that kept them from drinking, would that help or make things worse?

Though half her mind was occupied with what she hoped to do to Ryan's parents, Willow smiled comfortingly at her friend but the blonde slayer shook her head.

"No thanks Will," Buffy insisted, "I'm just going to go. Vampires to kill and everything."

Before Willow could protest that it was still daylight, and therefore not really vampire hunting time, Buffy dashed away.

"Willow," she turned to see Tina, teddy bear in her arms, standing in the doorway. She smiled at the small girl who looked so dour.

"Hey Tina," she greeted, "How's the scarf coming?"

"'snot done yet," Tina said, "When will Xander wake up?"

"I'm not sure," Willow admitted, "but soon I think."

"Good," Tina said, "Then he can kill the monster, like in your stories."

"Monster?" Willow asked, dread beginning to creep into her heart. Had Spike survived somehow? If so, why would he be tormenting children? Or was there another demon?

"It stalks around outside of the room at night, growling," Tina whispered, clutching at her bear, "When they took Johnny to another room, it got him. It looks at me at night and it scares me."

Willow narrowed her eyes and Tina squeaked as she heard Willow's snakes begin to hiss at the idea of a demon feeding on children.

"Can you tell me more about the monster?" Willow asked, "What does it look like? Does it show up at a specific time."

"It has teeth like this," Tina said and she used her hands to imitate the demon's reverse overbite, "And it wears a black hat and its eyes are white, like golf balls. It has red rings around its eyes, like a raccoon but red. Ryan drew a picture. We could hear Johnny screaming."

"You're very observant," Willow commented absently as she tried to remember if she'd ever come across any pictures of such a demon when she'd made the horrible mistake of trying to scan books to make an online database for Giles. A shiver ran down her spine as she remembered Moloch/Malcolm.

"Thank you," Tina said with a smile and she yawned, "The medicine makes me sleepy. Willow, will you tell me a story?"

"Of course," Willow agreed and she went into the children's ward to continue her unofficial volunteering.

When she returned, tired but pleased, she saw Xander, sitting up in his bed, joking with the nurse.

"There's my bestest bud," the said cheerfully as Willow rushed into the room.

"You're awake!" Willow cried, "I was so worried!"

"It's okay Wills," Xander said, "I just had to talk to someone."

"And we're almost finished," the nurse interrupted, "You're scheduled for a CT scan just as soon as we can get permission from your parents. We haven't been able to reach them yet. Do you have an alternative contact number for them?"

Willow flinched while Xander smiled and rattled off a number.

"They're at a business conference," he lied blithely, "But my uncle can stand in as my guardian."

"Right," the nurse said, "I'll get in contact with them. Once we can clear you of any brain damage then after an observation period we should be able to let you go."

"Thanks Mary Beth," Xander called out as the woman left.

"Talking to who?" Willow demanded, "And what was that number you gave them? It wasn't Rory's and what if they realize your parents are gone? They'll take you away and put you into foster care and then I'll never see you again or the vampires can get to you because a foster home isn't a private owned home that needs an invitation and then-"

Xander raised a hand and stopped Willow's babble.

"Don't worry Will's, just trust me," he said simply, "And I'll explain everything. Or, you know, you could just ask yourself."

"What?" Willow demanded.

"Well, nice as they are, I'm pretty sure the candles and crystals weren't for me," Xander pointed out dryly, "And a bag from the Magic Box doesn't do me much good, especially since I didn't think that Giles taught you any healing spells."

"He didn't," Willow admitted, "I've learned how to read an aura and do some wards and I can uninvited vampires from houses. I can do a little levitation too. Giles is going slow, mostly because of the influences of the Hellmouth. Giles said that during the next break I should leave the Hellmouth and cleanse my aura."

Xander shook his head.

"Not going to help," the brunette boy said, "Wills, have you ever looked up how many kids graduate from sunnyhell high?"

"An average of twenty five percent of each class makes it to graduation," Willow answered promptly, "Buffy coming in has stopped a lot of deaths though. This year's class made it all the way up to thirty-five percent."

Xander stared at her for a moment.

"Why do you know these things?" he asked with a wry smile. Willow smiled depreciatingly.

"You never know what kind of things might come in handy," the red head pointed out primly.

"Do you know how many people in sunnyhell high right now were born here?" Xander asked and Willow shook her head.

"Most of us I guess," she shrugged.

"Willow, there are only six of us alive from that year," Xander said solemnly, "You, me, Andrew, Jonathan and Cordelia. Marcie is the sixth."

Willow blinked, stunned at this information.

"How do you know?" she demanded, "I'm sure there are others. What about Amy Madison?"

"Her mother was born here but she was born in northern California. Remember? She moved here when we were ten," Xander replied.

Willow's mind raced through the people that she knew. She remembered Percy being the new boy when she was six, and promptly cutting a chunk of her hair when dared by the future athletes of Sunnyhell high, cementing his place in their social circle. The Cordettes had just appeared over the years, and in some cases disappeared, she'd never really thought about them except as part of Cordelia's whole, like a hydra. The kids in drama, she'd never seen a single person perform in all of the drama events the team put on, not even as part of the back stage crew. The druggie kids were never the same either, not surprising since demons loved easy targets and there were few easier than people stoned out of their minds. When it came to other geeks, she could only remember Jonathan and Andrew as central figures, just kids who'd always been there in those circles. The kids who'd never belonged to any particular clique, they all blended in her mind. She began to realize that Xander was right and she almost smacked herself for never noticing. New victims had to come from _somewhere_. The birth rate in Sunnydale simply wasn't high enough to satisfy demand.

This brought something else to her mind.

"There's a demon in the hospital," Willow blurted out, "It's eating kids. Only they can see it!"

"What, like totoro?" Xander asked. Willow glared at him.

"It _eats_ kids," Willow repeated.

"Right," Xander sighed, "Well, get the Buffster here and call Giles. Where's my sword?"

"Xander, it'll be at least three months, if you're lucky, before you can use that leg," Willow scolded, "you can't hunt demons with a broken leg!"

Xander got a determined look on his face.

"Watch me," he said confidently. Willow covered her face with her hands.

"Dear Buddha, please let him fall into another coma until his leg is healed," Willow muttered sarcastically. With all of the Bollywood movies she, Xander, Jesse, and later Buffy, watched, Buddha was Willow's preferred almost deity to call upon when she wasn't being serious.

"And bring me a pony and a plastic rocket," Xander quipped, "Come on Wills, it'll be fine, trust me."

Willow huffed but she did look up.

"I'll call Giles," she offered, "We need to get all the information on this thing that we can get. And he should know that you're awake and that you're not going to fight."

Xander gave her a look but he didn't bother to openly contradict her.

"Better hurry Wills," he said instead in a serious tone, "We need to stop this thing."

Willow nodded and she left to find a phone- unfortunately Xander's room had not come equipped with such a device.

As she left, Xander looked outside and stared at the waxing crescent moon. An owl flew silently passed his gaze to land in a nearby tree.

"I really hope you keep your promise Lady," he sighed and he sat back to wait. He needed to be battle ready, and soon. There was something eating kids and he'd be damned n more ways than one if he let that continue.

-/\-

Seems like a good stopping point, don't you think? Please tell me what you think, the more I write the less I have any clue of what I'm actually doing, if you guys have any suggestions or you're just willing to tell me what you think of what I've written so far then I'd appreciate it

Also, I've got exams coming up so if you think I'm slow now just wait until I'm taking and grading tests!


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry this took so long, I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I'm just a fan, and you guys get a longer than average chapter as part of the apology!

=/\=

When Giles informed her about the evil creature that dared to harm children, sick children on top of that, and described just what it did to those victims of the beast, Buffy's thoughts flew to her cousin. At the time Celia had been everything that little Buffy had wanted to be and Celia had been her very best friend, her first best friend.

And now to know that this Hellmouth _shit_ had been messing with her life even before the Powers of whatever decided that she of all people would make a good champion of Light against the powers of evil, the jumble of emotions threatened to overwhelm her. Between fear as she involuntarily imagined all the dangers she'd been oblivious to before, elation at the chance of revenge, pleasure at finally being able to be useful, to do something to prove to Xander and Willow that she could still be there hero, two emotions rose above everything else.

Anger.

And even more than anger, Hatred.

Her entire body felt like a coiled spring, just waiting to jump, and she felt something that she had never felt before. Oh, in the past she'd claimed that she hated things often enough. She hated Snyder, hated homework, hated math, hated Snyder, hated being a Slayer, hated moving to Sunnydale, hated Snyder. But now, she knew that she'd never really hated before. Now, as she thought about the monster that took Celia, now she knew hatred.

Giles thought that she didn't listen to him, and yeah maybe she was a little sloppy with her overhand swing with the axe, but it wasn't like she really used axes a lot right? Plus, who really cared if she called demons by their right name or not? The important thing was that she could kill them. Even better, she knew just how to kill them. Best of all, she knew how to destroy the kid killer.

Of course, she'd discovered the best way to destroy the creature _after _Willow had diluted the proper strain of flu so she could be infected with something strong enough to make her sick enough to see the demon without being so strong that she wouldn't be able to fight it. And it just so happened that the weapon she needed was not in Giles's collection where he could just pick it up himself and bring to the hospital. It wasn't even at Willow's house where, according to the red headed witch in training, Xander had started to store weapons of his own. No, the weapon she needed, a rather nice hand and a half sword with a silver gilt edge and really pretty enamel work that perfectly matched a set of jewelry she'd gotten on sale the last time she'd visited her dad, was at home.

At home where Ted appeared more and more often.

She wished that she could send Willow to get her sword. Her friend could talk to Ted about computery things and act all harmless and distracting and get the sword without Ted ever suspecting anything. And her mom liked Willow. If Will saw anything oogy with Ted then Buffy could bring this up with her mother and she'd have to listen.

But, according to Giles, since it was Willow's wards that were keeping the demon from snacking on children like Xander ate twinkies, she had to stay in the hospital and keep those spells going. The hacker wasn't strong enough to keep them up from a distance. Thus, no Willow to deal with Ted.

She wished she could send Amy. Amy could distract Ted with talk about baking, stupid Ted and his stupid baking. Amy could get the sword. And Amy, after dealing with a mom like hers, had more than enough experience in telling when a parental figure was acting definitely not right. Amy could back her up.

But Amy was going to her dad's this weekend and, according to Amy, her dad was two steps away from sending her to a psychiatrist because she let some things slip about Catherine the Great and witchcraft. She needed to concentrate on her own family situation so no Amy to deal with the creeper that was Ted.

For a brief moment she contemplated asking Jonathan. The quiet, round faced boy had been drawn to the library one day to get help with a book project while she'd been struggling with a math assignment. Slaying really didn't leave a lot of time for studying and Willow being at the hospital all the time was romantic and all but it did cut into the time that the red head could have been using to help the Slayer stay on top of her school work. He'd helped her out and they started to talk. Something about him made her suspect he had hidden depths, plus he made math make sense. But she wasn't entirely sure that they were good enough friends that she could ask him to get her sword. That and she wasn't entirely sure that she could trust him to get her sword without pawing through her underwear.

The blonde Slayer wasn't quite sure how Xander could distract Ted and get the sword but she knew that he would be great if he could. But his leg kept him in the hospital even more firmly than Willow's wards tied her to the building of evil and sickness.

Giles would probably get the sword for her, but it would probably be awkward for the British man to explain just why he needed to get into the bedroom of a teenage girl. Awkward and it wouldn't create the sort of impression that she'd want her mother to form of Giles.

A rush of guilt, and nausea, momentarily broke the haze of hatred and anger directed towards the demon but it surged back almost as quickly as it had come and the anger left burned in her even more strongly than before. She felt a dark presence with the anger.

_Death is your gift_, a voice whispered in the back of her mind. She could feel the words reverberating in her and the dark feelings of hate become stronger. Her senses seemed stronger somehow, sharper too as she stalked through her territory to get her prize as quickly as possible so she could go to battle.

Buffy tried to ignore how unsteady her steps were as she made her way up the stairs to her room. She heard her mother say something, possibly to her, but Ted's voice accompanied her mother so she ignored them both. She had a mission.

"Hey there little lady," a deceptively genial voice greeted her and Buffy took a deep breath to try to keep herself under control, an effort ruined as she began to cough violently.

"Buffy," she heard her mom's worried voice call and she felt arms as strong as any demon's encircle her, keeping her hunched over while likely looking as though they were supporting her.

"Buffy, sweetie," her mom began, "are you okay?"

She felt cool hands on her forehead and wanted to snarl. They were getting in the way of her hunt! She needed her sword, needed to gut the creature, needed to hunt!

"Honey, you're burning up!" Joyce exclaimed, "Ted, go get a thermometer, honey, come onto bed."

"No," Buffy gasped as her mind raced to figure out a suitable lie and her body fought not to stumble as Ted released her, "Xander, Will, they're waiting for me. We have a history project. I borrowed a sword from Giles for it. I need to return it before he'll let me get the books Will says we'll need."

"I'll return the sword Buffy," Joyce replied soothingly, "and I'll get the books too. You just go to bed and rest."

"No!" Buffy protested, "This is important! And besides, if anything happens, I'll be in a hospital already, lots of doctors and nurses."

"Buffy," Joyce began and the Slayer tried not to wince at the thread of iron in her mother's voice, "You're sick and you should get to bed. Xander and Willow will understand that you couldn't make it. And I'll be right back and I'll even make your favorite soup."

"I don't know what your favorite is champ," Ted cut in as he returned with a thermometer, "but I have a good minestrone recipe that you might like."

Buffy felt her stomach roll at the thought of anything involving Ted's cooking an she shook her head.

"I just need to return the sword," Buffy said weakly, "I'll be back before you know it mom, please? It's my responsibility and aren't you always on about responsibility and other grown uppy things?"

"That's for when you aren't sick and you don't have anyone willing to do these things for you," her mother countered smoothly. Buffy took a deep breath, successfully this time, and, for the moment, gave up arguing. She allowed her mother, and the interloper, to take her to her room and handed over her favorite practice sword. Giles preferred she used the hardened oak sword whenever she sparred against Xander since, in theory, bruises and potential blunt force trauma was bad enough without the added risk of the pointy end going in the other person. Her mother ran her fingers through her daughter's hair for a bit. Buffy leaned into the feeling but kept a wary eye on the interloper.

The anger and hatred simmered beneath her skin and she continued to watch Ted as her mother left the room, sword in hand.

She glared at him and resisted the urge to reach for the daggers hidden beneath her mattress and gouge Ted's eyes out.

"I'll go make that soup," Ted said cheerfully.

"You do that," Buffy replied with disdain and he turned and left. She waited for a heartbeat, then another, and another, straining her ears for the slightest hint of movement outside the door.

As soon as she was sure that he was away, Buffy leapt out of bed and quickly grabbed the sword she needed. Thankfully it was short enough that she could strap it onto her back and hide it beneath a jacket.

The window opened smoothly and she's out onto the roof and ran towards the hospital, jumping over fences and dodging through the gaps between hedges, before there's any chance of anyone else stopping her.

Had she paid a bit more attention, she likely would have noticed that as soon as she'd opened the window, her bedroom door had opened and a grim faced Ted ad witnessed her escape from the house.

"It seems some young lady needs a lesson about what is and isn't acceptable in my house," the computer salesman said darkly as he looked out the window.

It didn't take long for Buffy to arrive at the hospital, even if she was slower than usual. It wasn't really her fault that she had to stop on occasion because her body deemed it a good time to try and get rid of one of those pesky lungs via coughing. Sunnydale was really absurdly small, if you didn't count the warehouse district and abandoned factories which easily made up three fourths of the town. Traveling through the little wooded areas and across the yards had Buffy at the house of death just as her mother was pulling into the parking lot. The young Slayer was careful to remain out of sight, shadowing her mother, as the curly haired woman went to deliver the practice sword to Giles.

"Thanks Mrs. Summers," she heard Xander say brightly, "Giles, I told you that the Buffster wouldn't let us down!"

Buffy smiled smugly at Xander's declaration and tried to slip further into the shadows to ensure that her mother would just go ahead and leave. She didn't want her here, not while she was hunting, not while that monster was roaming the halls, just waiting for Willow's concentration to break and the children to be vulnerable. And she didn't want her mother in the way when the demon's patience inevitably broke and it proved whether or not it was intelligent enough to figure out just who was responsible for the whole crash diet.

She peeked into Willow and Xander's room, just enough for the dark haired boy to see her. He nodded slightly, and Buffy noted how he covered the action by agreeing with her mom about something. Giles caught on too and Buffy quickly withdrew and began to stalk towards the children's wing. With some luck, the demon would be hanging around there. The blonde former cheerleader was confident that her Xander shaped friend and mentor would keep her mom safe and distracted while she was on the hunt. She supposed that Willow was in the bathroom or something and absently dismissed the red head. She'd return to Xander soon enough and help with the distraction, Buffy was sure.

The hospital halls were disturbingly empty and silent. Buffy had avoided hospitals on general principle ever since Celia but in the back of her mind she was fairly sure that there were supposed to be more people running around.

She dismissed the thought as she spotted blood peppered across the walls like a Polluck painting (and yes she knew who that was thank you very much Mrs. Brad, her mother _did_ own an _art gallery_) and a few bodies were slumped against the walls. The only young ones, a boy about her age with a candy stripper uniform and a badge bearing the name of Ben something and a nurse, both have looks of horror on their faces. The slayer figured that the older doctors were the source of the blood on the walls.

She glanced over towards the walls of the children's ward and was relieved to see, through the windows, children al huddling against a wall together, blankets pulled close. What she had not expected was to see Willow standing in front of them. The other girl's stance was aggressive as she stared at the door and she held in her hands a tall, wooden staff. The blonde former may queen wondered where Willow had gotten that because it didn't look like any of the quarter staffs that Giles had stashed away, too rough. She can see Willow's mouth moving and barely registers that the trainee witch is saying something, a chant of some sort.

The reason for that chant knocks Buffy off her unsteady feet and the slayer is brought back to the reason why she's in the hospital to begin with.

_VENGEANCE!_ A voice deep within her cried as she laid eyes on the creature that killed her cousin, kill her _sister_.

An inhuman roar was torn from her throat as she shakily lunged at the beast which laughed at her as it dodged. Red begins to creep into her vision as she continues to go after it. Long hours of sword practice with Xander and natural Slayer talent as well as initial cheerleader conditioning have made her a battle machine and would make many sword masters weep in envy. Not all of them, her left was still sloppy, but she could move fast enough that most of them wouldn't notice.

But even with her being a Slayer, and even with proper practice helping her, they're more evenly matched than she likes. She's weak from the stupid, stupid disease that she needs to see it with and she suspects that it's weak from hunger, even if it has just gorged itself on the poor candy striper guy. Buffy knew that a heavy meal after forever of dieting was hard on the system so it's probably not helping the demon any.

"Young lady," she heard an unfortunately familiar voice begin and just as she's about to lung, an unyielding grip encases her arm and yanks her back. The demon laughs at her as she struggles fruitlessly against Ted's grip.

"We need to have a talk," Ted told her and there's something dark in his voice that makes Buffy want to shiver but at the same time makes her hackles raise. She's the _slayer_, the bogeywoman of the boogeyman! She's the thing that demon moms use to threaten their little demon babies into behaving like proper little demons or she would come and get them. And she's sick and tired of _Ted_ making her feel weak and useless and powerless.

"No," Buffy growled, "No we don't. I'm busy. Go away. In fact, you can just walk out the door and keep walking until you hit the ocean or something and then just keep going."

"Now, now," Ted said in a deceptively calm voice and Buffy growled at him as she struggled, though her eyes never left the form of the now snickering demon.

"I wonder what your mother would think if she knew that you were here, waving a sword around, and with all these bodies just laying here," Ted went on, "I don't think those are the sort of actions that a proper young lady should be performing."

Buffy snarled.

"Just leave me alone!" she growled and yanked her arm out of his too tight gasp. The demon started to take advantage of her distraction and went for a killing blow. The young Slayer barely managed to push her mother's boyfriend out of the way, causing him to land hard against the wall of the hospital. Unfortunately, saving the interloper had consequences.

"Buffy!" she heard Willow shriek as the demon managed to knock her down and her sword flew from her grasp. A lance of pain shot through her arm as she flubbed her landing and she was fairly sure that it wasn't supposed to be at that angle. She had a brief moment to be angry, her other arm had just barely healed! Her mother was going to freak to find that, in her absence, she'd managed to break her arm yet again.

That moment of regret and annoyance was gone just as fast as it came as the injured blonde realized why the demon had not continued its attack.

Willow had left the children's ward when she'd seen her blonde friend fall and behind her the wards that she'd been so carefully maintaining, using as both practice in holding long term spells and to protect the children, fell like shattered glass.

"Buffy!" Willow shouted and the slayer tried to shake away the disorientation and dizziness as well as ignore the pain in her arm.

The demon backed away from Buffy, its attention grabbed by Willow and the falling of her wards. A grim expression set on her face as she managed to get back to her feet and she dove for her sword while the demon made its way to the children's ward with only the red head and her stick in its way.

She knew Willow couldn't see the demon so she did the only thing she can and rushed at it, sword first, and thanks the Powers that its hunger distracted it long enough for her to get a good hit this time. The beast roared with anger and turned back to her, allowing Willow to get a lucky hit with her stick. It reacted immediately and stabbed Willow through the shoulder. The red headed girl gasped as she fell back, grasped at the wound and fell against the wall.

The Slayer sprang into action and a powerful kick brought the demon's attention back to her and their battle continued.

She knew that even with the inadequate meal of the candy striper, the monster was probably still starving and it likely spent its energy tearing apart those poor doctors or nurses or whoever they were. She should have the advantage! This should be so hard! But her arm was hurting and she was just so tired. She just wanted to rest. She wanted to cuddle with her teddy bear and eat her mom's soup and just make the world go away.

But one thing rose above that desire for comfort, the desire for that demon's head.

"Young lady," came Ted's stern tones once again and she ignored him in favor of the demon. It was bleeding, she could see it dripping on the floor and had to be conscious not to get any on her shoes. They weren't new but they were one of her favorite pairs of boots, all nice and broken in and they made her a whole two inches taller! And of course, it was too easy to slip in demon blood. That was a concern too.

This time the demon was the one who got Ted out of her way, a powerful hit causing the man's head to twist in a way that Buffy knew was as unnatural as the angle that her arm had fallen into. Her mother would have to find a new boyfriend, or not. Buffy could totally live with her mother just staying single for the rest of, well, forever. He fell to the ground and the Slayer took the chance she was given to skewer the demon onto her sword, twisting to lodge the silver edged blade into the demon's torso firmly.

Something between a keening wail and the sort of blat that you get when a tuba player tries and fails to get a proper note from their instrument came from the demon and the Slayer could see little wisps of smoke emerging from where the sword was stuck through the demon's gut.

With a feral grin and sheer determination, she managed to pull the sword back from the demon. She ignored the bits of demon guts clinging to the sword as the demon fell to whatever its equivalent of knees were and embedded the blade firmly into its head, nearly severing it in two. A small part of her wished she'd cut it at the general area of the neck. But another part of her reminded herself that no, people no longer kept heads on pikes to scare their enemies and that was gross anyway.

Another sharp pull removed the blade once more and Buffy looked to where Willow lay, possibly going into shock. Her shoulder was still bleeding but she looked like she was keeping a firm grip on it, all those layers helping to stem the blood flow. The blonde glanced up and saw the children were still huddling together and then took in the rest of the scene.

Her eyes widened as she looked at Ted, Ted who was now standing up and _twisting his head back into the right position!_ And the expression on that head definitely wasn't friendly.

Her arms were both aching, one she was fairly sure was broken. Her breathing was labored from the stupid virus and her head was fuzzy. She wasn't sure if that was because of the fever or potential blood loss. And Ted had just come back to life.

"Be a hallucination," Buffy begged to the air in general, "just be a hallucination and go away."

"Now then," Ted said, "We have a few rules to discuss young lady. Starting with a discussion as to the importance of obedience, because otherwise I'm afraid that this scene won't turn out well for you at all. Not to mention all those entries about being a Slayer? Definitely not normal behavior. I believe there are several correctional facilities in the Los Angeles area that would be very interested in a case like you."

He wasn't coming any closer to her, which Buffy appreciated as she listened hard. She was fairly sure that she'd heard someone else coming to them and she felt her heart rise into her throat. What if it was her mother? She knew that it looked bad. There were bodies everywhere and she probably had blood all over her and she wasn't even supposed to be in the hospital.

She decided to take a gamble.

"_Nurse_!" Buffy shrieked as loudly as she could as she allowed Ted to take the sword from her hands, "_Oh God! I need a doctor or someone_. _Please! He's not breathing!_"

In Sunnydale, very few people ran towards screams of terror or rage as generally those that did run towards those screams would end up screaming as well just before they died. That, however, was usually only in the case of wordless screams. But, hopefully, in a hospital, the call for a doctor or a nurse would be answered.

And, for once in her life as far as she was concerned, she actually had some decent luck as pair of nurses, one a rather burly man and the other a more petite woman, and a doctor came into the hall. They took one look at the scene- blood and bodies everywhere, a man with a sword standing over two young women who were between the crazy man and the children's ward and nothing obviously demony or otherwise in need of the Sunnydale syndrome to explain, and took action.

The male nurse and the doctor both tackled Ted while the other nurse went for Willow.

"This is just a mistake," she heard Ted saying in that horrible, awful, genial voice, "I need to bring her back and she's in the way. I always have to bring her back."

Whatever Ted was, Buffy knew that he was strong, but apparently, for some reason, he wasn't going to act against the hospital staff. The nurse and doctor held him back while the other nurse checked over Willow. The red headed girl was led to lay down and one of the children grabbed a blanket from their bed for her. When Willow resisted the nurse's efforts in removing her hat and sunglasses, the nurse left them along and began to bandage her wounds instead.

"Are you alright honey?" the female nursed asked and Buffy started as she realized that she was the one being spoken too.

"Yeah," Buffy said, "That was my mom's boyfriend. He brought me to the hospital when my fever seemed to get worse but he was muttering all the time and he grabbed my arm really hard and it really hurts! I don't know where he got the sword. When we came by the children's ward, I guess I cried or something because that guy," she pointed at Ben the candystriper, "came over and tried to help me and Ted, he just flipped!"

She was almost glad that the demon had possibly broken her arm again and it was easy enough to burst into tears as more reinforcements came and finally dragged Ted away as he was yelling the whole time that she was lying. Willow was still out of it so Buffy knew that she would have to be the one to make up a good cover.

"Where is your mother?" the nurse asked as she began to check Buffy over.

"Visiting a friend of mine," Buffy explained, "Xander, his leg was broken awhile ago and he's been in a coma."

Her mind was still racing. Xander's injuries had never been explained and Ted was on the scene at about the right time. She let her eyes go wide as more nurses came in and began to continue to tend them and to go and check on the children. Der kindestod was carefully ignored by everyone.

"Oh God," Buffy gasped, "Mom met Ted just before Xander got hurt!"

It was a lie, but a good lie as far as Buffy was concerned. She saw several of the nurses frowning and allowed herself to fall back into their care. The beast was dead, she had revenge for Celia and Ted was going to be out of her hair for now and she could kill him later. After all, he definitely wasn't human.

For the first time since she'd gotten sick, Buffy let herself relax.

=/\=

One thing about der kindestod that struck me was that it killed a member of Buffy's family, so this sort of had to be a vaguely buffy centric chapter for me

I'm sorry that it took so long for me to update! I won't make any promises except that I am going to keep writing!

And yes, I killed Ben, reflect on the consequences of that for a bit


	6. Chapter 6

Go read SpaceAnJL's Upsetting the Applecart, it completely kicks butt

Also I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or anything connected to it. I am in no way Joss Whedon or connected to Mutant Enemy Productions except that, like them, I'm American

=/\=

Xander was lying back on his bed, trying to ignore how much his leg itched , when he heard it.

The sharp _BANG_ of a gun being fired. Screaming erupted and the young man immediately scrambled out of his bed to try to see what was going on. He made it to the wall so he could use it to support himself as he hopped to the door, ducking slightly just in case.

One of the screams stood out from the others and Xander felt himself grow pale.

Willow.

The young man searched the room for a viable weapon but all he could find were a few stakes that he'd carved while being stuck in bed and a knife that Buffy had left behind earlier.

"Thank you Buffy's habit of leaving weapons everywhere," Xander said in the general direction of the ceiling. He recently come to the conclusion that actually naming someone or something in even something an innocent as a thank you prayer-ish sort of thing would be majorly not of the good. Never knew who was listening after all and who knew if thanking one person/thing meant another would insult another? Better to keep it vague.

Keeping the dagger in hand and staying balanced on one leg was trickier than Xander cared to admit to but Willow was in danger.

People were running around and shouting at each other in the hallway and Xander had to plaster himself against the wall a few times to keep from getting knocked over. He could hear more gunshots going off and he prayed to nothing in particular that Willow was still safe.

He saw the person he assumed was the shooter, a police woman with mirrored sunglasses, and she was struggling under the weight of a hospital orderly and an officer who had her pinned down. There were several other police officers in the room and two of them had their guns trained on the woman. He didn't see Willow anywhere, but he did see that the window, more than large enough for a person to go through, was shattered. He really hoped that his friend had escaped. They were only on the second floor. That wasn't that bad of a jump, right?

He moved away from the door as the police managed to get the traitor in their ranks under their control and they began to lead her away.

"All units, all units," he overheard one officer, "be aware that suspect, Ted Buchanan, wanted in connection to the murder of half a dozen victims and attempted murder of two other minors, has escaped police custody. Suspect is a five foot eleven inch, white male, brown hair, mid to late thirties. Suspect has a hostage, an injured teenage female. Suspect is assumed armed and dangerous, proceed with caution."

Xander paled.

Willow, the bastard had Willow.

=/\=

Yeah, kinda short, sorry!


	7. Chapter 7

Willow babbles even in her head and I don't own Buffy the vampire slayer and is it wrong of me to hope that more people review?

=/\=

At the moment, Willow was really, very, truly glad that she'd been given a dose of rather heavy duty painkillers before she'd been shot at and then kidnapped. She imagined that if she hadn't been drugged, then the way Ted was dragging her by her injured arm would hurt a lot more and she'd probably be a lot more scared than she was. As it stood, the pain was more of a dull throb, though it was starting to hurt a lot more than it had been hurting when sh was in the hospital. She was a little worried that Mrs. Summer's ex had torn her stitches when he'd grabbed her.

"When we get home young lady, you'll have to go straight to your room and stay there until I get your mother," Ted was saying. Her mother?

Willow tried to mentally shake the fuzziness from her head, she didn't dare actually shake her head. After all, she really doubted that any form of disagreement would be appreciated by her captor.

She tried to piece together events. A doctor had stitched her up, told her she was lucky and that she'd have to go through some physical therapy to make sure she'd retain full use of her shoulder. Ted was bundled up in a corner, twitching, and Buffy had gone with her mom somewhere to talk. The police came. They'd started to mirandize Ted when one of the police, a woman, drew her gun and aimed it at her. One of the other officers had managed to spoil her aim enough that she'd not been hit. There had been all sorts of confusion as the policewoman had tried to kill her again and Ted had taken advantage of the chaos. He'd grabbed her and they'd gone through the window. He was very clever for a robot. Willow wondered who'd programmed him. Whoever created him had to be amazing. Evil, but amazing.

Ted was speaking again, going on about Joyce. He was going to get Mrs. Summers!

Willow tried to struggle against her captor's hold but all that happened was that Ted held her tighter. She whimpered at the steel grip against her wounded shoulder.

"Now, now little lady," Ted said said in a lecturing sort of tone, "you did the crime, you'll have to do the time. And once you're done with your time out then we can discuss what will happen next."

The gorgon felt her stomach churn and fear and anger warred within her. She was getting so tired of all of this. She'd not had a full night's sleep in more than two months, she couldn't stop feeling scared and dirty and worthless, she couldn't stop feeling guilty, and she was so _tired _of everything. What was it that made her look so much like a victim? Did she have some sort of cosmic sign that everyone but her could see? A sign that just proclaimed to everyone that if they needed someone to kidnap or someone to violate or just someone to pick on, she was the girl for the job?

Her hair was getting upset and she'd lost her hat so they were not hindered in any way as they bit and hissed at her kidnapper but Ted didn't seem to notice, which frustrated her snakes more. In the back of her mind, Willow made a note to try to figure out how independently intelligent her snakes were, they were obviously more intelligent than the average serpent but was that her direction or did her snakes actually have above average intelligence of their own?

Her anger was starting to burn through the haze of the drugs, she made another mental note to do some tests since it was apparently possible that her physiology had changed beyond just giving her snake hair and wings and the ability to change people into stone with a look. She knew that the drugs she'd been given should be lasting longer. But the pain in her shoulder was starting to grow, and that had to be from more than just torn stitches, and her head was getting clearer, obviously mixed blessings there.

They were coming to a residential neighborhood that Willow sort of recognized. It was the one that was mostly populated by retirees. The real Ms. French lived in this neighborhood. She and Xander usually avoided it growing up since some of the people would complain about loud noises when they'd played in the streets and they always gave out the healthy snacks during Halloween, except for Mrs. Fischer who always gave away lollipops and glow sticks.

Her anger continued to grow and her head became clearer and the pain in her shoulder sharper. There had to be something she could do, what could she do? She couldn't wait until reinforcements came to help her. Angel was…gone, Buffy wouldn't have any clue plus she was hurt and Xander was injured too and even if he knew what was going on, he'd never be able to get to her in time. And what could Giles do against a super strong computer man? He had enough trouble with the digital inventory she was creating for the library!

Thoughts of Giles made Willow pause for a moment. The librarian did more than just catalogue books and look up how Buffy could kill ooky demons. He also did magic, more importantly, he had been teaching Willow to do magic. If she could just concentrate, but oh, her shoulder hurt so much!

"Hey!" she heard a sharp voice call in their direction, "let her go you creep!"

Ted stopped and Willow managed to turn slightly so she could see and nearly groaned at the sight of Queen C stalking towards them with all of her May Queen/Leader of the Cordettes attitude.

"I don't know who you think you are," Cordelia said imperiously, "but let her go right now before I call the cops."

"Little lady, I don't think you have any right to tell me what to do," Ted replied in a tone that dared Cordelia to go on and warned her that she wouldn't like the consequences if she did.

Willow wondered what was going on in the May Queen's head for her to be doing this. Didn't she at least see the snakes? Or was it Sunnydale syndrome and Cordelia only saw a girl being dragged around by an older man?

"Cordelia," Willow tried to make herself sound commanding but she knew it probably came out more like a squeak, "run!"

The uncrowned Queen of Sunnydale High spared a moment to glare at the gorgon before she returned her attention to Ted.

"I mean it buddy," Cordelia snapped, "and I've faced much scarier things than you so you aren't going to scare _me_."

Willow concentrated as she went over the magic exercises that Giles had been putting her through. Meditation was useless, so was aura reading, and she didn't have the time or ingredients to set up a ward and what good would a ward do at the moment? Maybe if Ted had actually brought her back to wherever he was planning on taking he rand had stuck her in a room she could have used a ward to just barricade herself inside but that would have still left Mrs. Summers in danger. Levitation?

Levitation.

She sent a prayer to any benevolent force that might be listening and looked inward for that energy inside of her that would have made her unique even before she was cursed. She was tempted for a brief moment to use the energies all around her, the stronger magic of the Hellmouth and of the earth and just use herself as a channel for it, but Giles had repeated warning after warning about such a thing. If she used Hellmouth energies, it would corrupt her own magic, tainting her, and leaving her more open to outside manipulation. So instead she used her own, still pure, personal magic and with it she reached outside of herself and willed Ted to be lifted.

"_Attollo_," she hissed under her breath, willing the word to work, willing her personal magic to do her bidding, willing as hard as she could that Ted would be lifted into the air.

Ted was heavy, much, much heavier than the stake that she'd been using for practice but she pressed on and she felt Ted slip from the change in balance and his grip loosened, just enough for her to slip away. She stumbled slightly as she moved out of his reach and she ran to Cordelia.

"We need to get away from him now," Willow demanded, putting more force into her voice. She watched as Cordelia's eyes widened and realized that the popular girl was finally noting the snakes. The brunette opened her mouth to scream but Willow cut her off by grabbing her hand and pulling her sharply away from the still sort of floating Ted.

"Cordelia Chase," Willow growled, "we've got to go. That's a killer robot."

"And you're a demon!" Cordelia squeaked as Willow pulled her away from Ted.

"I'm Willow," Willow retorted and she jerked as Cordelia stopped. The gorgon wasn't quite strong enough to pull Cordelia along when the girl wasn't shocked by something and therefore unable to protest fully.

"Willow? Really," Cordelia demanded.

"Halloween," Willow explained shortly, tugging at her nemesis, "we've got to go, I can't hold him like that forever."

"You're doing that?" Cordelia squeaked and Willow found a bit of pleasure at putting her nemesis off balance. The two girls began to run now, away from the neighborhood. Willow unconsciously began to run towards her house. It was getting dark and the last thing she wanted was to be stuck outside in the dark when the vampires started to come out. It was true she could at least defend herself against _them_ but there was the risk of turning Cordelia into stone.

Not that such a thing would be entirely bad…but no, it would be. It would be bad and evil and awful.

"Bad Willow," the gorgon growled under her breath. She already felt bad enough about Harmony and Warren and the mystery girl. Even if Cordelia had been mean to her essentially their whole lives, turning her to stone was an extreme that she wouldn't be able to deal with.

"Where are we going?" Cordelia demanded.

"My house," Willow answered shortly, "it's getting dark."

Cordelia didn't speak anymore after that, saving her breath for running. Willow was glad, she wasn't sure that she'd be able to run and talk at the same time. The running was already hard enough. She made another mental note to start running with Xander. She didn't think that she'd be able to keep up with him but she should have been working on her running away muscles a lot more than she had been. As tonight was evidence, she wouldn't always be able to rely on her eyes and her magic was an iffy sort of thing. Why hadn't she been training with Xander and Buffy?

They made it to Willow's house without further incident and Cordelia turned to the panting Willow who wondered how in the world the brunette was in so much better shape and not gasping for breath.

"So what's with the snakes?" Cordelia demanded, "are you evil now? And what was the deal with the creepy guy? And what's the deal with Halloween?"

Willow considered her options. Maybe if she showed Cordelia then the girl would be freaked out enough that she would just leave her alone. That would be nice. She might even stop making comments about needing a Sunnydale fashion task force in the police and that might get Buffy to back off about her clothes.

"I'm not evil," Willow said firmly though she wasn't entirely convinced by her own declaration. There had only been three real gorgons in all the world in all of history and they were all considered some of the most evil creatures in the world, thus why the two immortal ones were locked up until someone finally hit on a way to kill them. Was three really a big enough sample to determine if a species was evil? Did she really count as a species if there were only three of them and they were all female and therefore couldn't really continue their species?

"But you have snakes for hair!" Cordelia protested, "that's not human at least."

"On Halloween there was a spell," Willow explained, "and everyone who bought their costumes from _Ethan's_ changed into their costumes. Someone broke the spell but not enough. Some of us still have bits left over from that night. Lots of the drama kids still have fur and stuff and a few other kids still have other bits stuck to them. I still have the snake hair."

Willow watched as the cheerleader considered Willow's words.

"Why did you try to help me?" Willow asked softly, "why were you even in that neighborhood?"

Stopping someone in the middle of the street to save them had never really been Cordelia's thing.

Cordelia was silent for a moment longer.

"I was there because Mr. Stevens promised to bump up my score in social studies if I did a special project on World War II. After Mr. Whitmore's promised me practically a failing grade in biology because I lost my egg, even though he gave me a new one and I put that nice and safe in my fridge this time and it's staying there until we have to turn them in, I really can't afford anything less than an A in any of my other classes. There's an old lady that lives in that area, Mrs. Laggan, she was a nurse during that time and I was interviewing her for my project. And as for why I helped you."

Again the cheerleader paused for a moment and Willow could see that the girl was searching for the right words.

"Harmony is gone, did you know that?" Cordelia asked and Willow tried not to wince, "I expected it eventually. I mean, how many times have the girls in my group just disappeared? Every year, I have new Cordettes and next year there'll be other new girls. Generally, I don't care. They come and go and I'm still here."

Willow nodded.

"But Harmony, she lasted longer than any of the rest," Cordelia went on, "so now that she's gone, I don't know, I just can't take it anymore. I just can't. But I'm not stupid, no matter what you and Xander think."

This time Willow didn't hide her wince and she didn't disagree with Cordelia's bitter accusation. She did think the brunette wasn't very bright, though part of that was because the other girl was really quite mean and it was hard to see beyond that. After all, if Willow was well and truly honest with herself, most of the students in school when compared to her weren't very bright so she wasn't really much of a judge as to who was smart and who wasn't.

"I know that I'm not strong enough or fast enough or anything enough to fight vampires and whatever else eats people," Cordelia said, "but I figured that guy wasn't a demon or anything. He looked normal and there was still some sunlight out so I could be sure that he wasn't a vampire. Me against a normal person, I can handle that. I can handle normal, human bad guys. So I wasn't about to let another one of my classmates disappear, not when I could handle it."

"You didn't even realize it was me, did you?" Willow tried to keep the amusement out of her voice. Cordelia shook her head.

"I need to work on noticing the weird," Cordelia pouted slightly, "didn't even see the snakes. What did you dress up as anyway?"

Willow froze for a moment. Xander had destroyed the statues that she'd made Halloween night so there was no real way for Cordelia to ever find out what had happened to Harmony. And, though she knew Cordelia could ignore with the best of 'em in Sunnydale, she really wasn't stupid.

"Medusa," Willow said at last, tensed in case she needed to run again. But the name apparently didn't register to Cordelia, or at least she was doing a very good job of hiding whether or not she knew what Medusa was.

"So it's just the snakes?" the cheerleader pressed and Willow shook her head.

"I've got wings too, I just hide them," Willow admitted, "and my eyes are a little different. I don't like to show people."

"Fair enough," Cordelia conceded and she cocked her head and then it was as though a light bulb appeared over her head.

"That's why you've been wearing that ugly trench coat!" she yelped, "and those hats! And the sunglasses! You've been hiding!"

"Yes," Willow replied, "Wings and snakes? Even in Sunnydale that might get a few extra looks."

Cordelia looked as though she was about to say something else but was cut off by a booming knock at the door. Willow squeaked.

"That might be Ted!" she whimpered.

"What can we do?" Cordelia demanded, "where's Buffy?"

"She's sick, and hurt," Willow confessed as her mind raced to catalogue what she had in the house, "there's a lot of salt in the kitchen. Go get some and start using it to draw a line in front of every window and door in the house, now!"

Thankfully Cordelia ran off to do as Willow said without protest as Willow took a deep breath and again drew from her inner stores of magic. Whenever Cordelia finished putting down the salt it would make things easier, but for the moment she could set up a ward without extra ingredients.

A fist broke through the door and Willow quickly threw up the simplest ward that she could come up with while Cordelia ran about, drawing a line in front of the door with salt. Whoever it was outside was pushed away but Willow got the feeling that whoever it was wasn't going to give up easily.

"Cordelia," Willow said, "when you're done with the salt, call the hospital and see if they can get Giles."

"Because a librarian can totally help us with this," Cordelia grumbled. Willow didn't reply. She gritted her teeth and began to pray.

=/\=

There's some momentum building and I admit, I didn't expect Cordelia, she just sort of barged her way into the story. Remember that I jumped into this story without a real plan so if anyone has any particular ideas or things that they want to happen, just tell me and I will give them serious consideration.


	8. Chapter 8

The owl returns! I have no connection to Buffy the Vampire Slayer except that I'm a fan of the show! I do not own anything! Though in the case of Medusa, Perseus and the Pantheons I'm pretty sure they're public domain so there's not really an issue there

Belated Happy Halloween! And for all you Americans, Happy almost Thanksgiving!

Please review and tell me what you think!

=/\=

Xander was getting extremely tired of his cast. It was awkward hobbling around on it and it made it much harder for him to sneak out of the hospital. But Willow was in danger. And as long as this Ted guy was loose, Mrs. Summers was in danger.

But the cast still had to be dealt with and so he managed by stealing a crutch when no one was looking and dodging into the storage room of the hospital where they kept everything they took from patients, and victims, until they could go through it themselves or dump it al in the local goodwill or other similar charity shop. On occasion some stuff would be returned of course but the rate of Sunnydale General Hospital check out amongst those that entered for any reason other than flu or pregnancy was as low as the Sunnydale death rate was high.

Of course with the demon dead, Xander supposed that the number of people that Sunnydale General actually healed would increase at least when it came to the kids. He'd have to make sure that Giles or Willow or someone would start to make general sweeps through the hospital to make sure it stayed demon free.

Buffy's sword, and a surprising number of other weapons, had all been stashed in the store room and Xander felt there was nothing wrong with essentially helping himself. The stakes were all well and good but a nice big claymore was always great for intimidation, or other things if the intimidation didn't work out. And there was a shovel right there.

Whoever had put stuff in the storage room was now Xander's favorite person.

It was tricky balancing all of the stuff that Xander wanted to take out of the storage room while using a crutch _and_ being super stealthy and dodging the nurses and doctors and other hospital employees.

Okay, he didn't really dodge them. He ducked into a locker room, stole someone's scrubs and a lab coat and then pretended he knew where he was going and hoped that no one would notice the cumbersome cast. And it seemed that no one cared if he was stupid enough to go out after dark while injured.

He caught sight of a blur of white and yellow against the dark sky, flying ahead of him, and he followed after the barn owl, slowly though as he tried to avoid using his broken leg. He was vaguely sure that putting weight on it at the moment would be a bad idea, even though it felt fine.

He continued, trying to hurry down the dark streets of Sunnydale. He had to make it, he had to get to Willow. This creep had killed people and he took Willow. While the young man wasn't entirely sure what he would do if the creep _wouldn't_ let Willow go when he found them, he had an idea. He didn't think Giles, or anyone, would approve of the idea, but it was an idea.

He made his way, thankfully unmolested, following his flying guide through the winding streets of Sunnydale and found that he recognized the neighborhood. He and Willow had generally avoided it since anything louder than a whisper always had cranky old people coming out of their house to yell at them for being nuisances.

His guiding barn owl screeched to get his attention and he saw a man floating, just barely, above the street. He had a dark scowl on his face for a moment before, Xander assumed, he realized he was being watched. Xander felt some small bit of relief when he didn't spot Willow anywhere. His friend had gotten away. She was safe.

From this monster at least.

Xander felt some of the anxiety and urgency drain away from him, but he was still left with a dilemma, what to do with the man who had kidnapped Willow?

"Hello," the man said amiably, his features schooled into a pleasant expression, "I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm afraid I need some assistance."

Xander barely had time to blink before his guide swooped down and embedded her claws in the floating man's head, or tried to at least. The owl came away with part of the man's scalp, revealing nothing but metal and circuitry beneath, which it then dropped some distance away before wheeling back to land on a nearby mailbox. It stared at him expectantly.

"Huh," Xander took in this new piece of information, "well, that simplifies things."

The owl screeched again and Xander watched as his guide took off from the mailbox and flew off in a different direction. It wasn't flying very quickly but he got the feeling that meant Willow wasn't out of the woods just yet.

He looked back at the floating robot and decided to experiment. He didn't have a magnet handy but he wasn't about to leave this Malcolm 2.0 to just float there, at least not while he was still working. He was a proven danger to Willow and to Mrs. Summers. Dangers to Willow and Mrs. Summers were not to be tolerated.

_Ever_.

His guide screeched again to gain his attention and the king of cretins made a decision.

Ever since Halloween he'd been having trouble with static electricity. His sheets and towels were always clinging, he kept zapping people by accident and he would often zap himself. More than once he'd awoken to smoking bed sheets and the scent of ozone.

Now, Xander figured, was as good as a time as any to try to use this little talent on purpose. Even if it didn't work, blunt force trauma was always an option.

The robot opened his mouth to speak but Xander didn't take the time to listen. Instead, he used all the force he could muster and shoved his sword through the robot's torso. He could feel the sword protest, the robot's torso was perhaps made of better quality, harder, metal than the sword, but it still went through. He thought for a moment as he twisted the sword, concentrating on sorting out how he usually felt just before the static became strongest. There was an energy there, crackling below his skin, just begging to be let loose. He obliged and watched with glee as the robot was fried, lightning crackling over it, causing the robot man to seize and jerk as lightning crackled across its skin. When it finally finished, the boy wobbled slightly, feeling as though he'd just come down from a sugar high. Xander was pleased to note that the robot still floated. Since he wasn't sure that he would have been able to drag the robot after frying it, he was relieved.

His guide screeched impatiently as he tore up part of his lab coat to make enough rope to drag the robot behind him. But it would be stupid if he left it behind for just anyone to claim, and besides, it was Willow's birthday soon. He was pretty sure a robot, even a fried one, would totally blow anyone else's gift out of the water.

His guide, and he knew he should probably come up with a name for it if it was going to stick around as She had mentioned, wheeled in the air, screeching for his attention. He looked and frowned when he spotted a column of spoke, stark against the night sky.

"Well, what have we here?" a sly sounding voice came from behind him. He looked and sighed to see two vampires, their demonic visages already out, staring at him like he was a box of twinkies. One of them, a boy who looked vaguely familiar, licked his fangs. The other, a girl who'd draped herself over her vampiric fellow, smirked.

"Seriously?" he asked the sky and then back at the demons, "I really don't have time for this."

"Don't worry," the female vampire purred, "you'll never have to worry about time again."

Xander sighed and pulled out his back up sword. The Scottish variant of the traditional long sword wasn't what he was used to, but then what _he_ was used to was running away and what Perseus had been used to was actually a weird sickle sword thing. But he didn't have either weapon and the one he did have had a very sharp edge, it would do. And the sight of the blade made the two vampires take a step back which was another plus in its favor.

"Like I said," Xander growled, "_I don't have time for this_. Now either go away and stake yourselves or I'll kill you, take your pick."

The girl took off running. The guy growled and lunged after him. Xander sighed.

The swing of the blade was slower than he was used to but it worked and Xander spat as he tried to rid the taste of ash from his mouth. His guide screeched again.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Xander growled as he limped after his increasingly impatient guide, the robot obligingly floating after him.

His guide screeched for his attention yet again, causing him to wonder if there was something, _anything _that he could do so the owl could get his attention without sounding like nails on a chalkboard. Maybe tie a bell to one of its legs? He looked up and cursed as he saw a column of smoke rising in the sky and tried to hop faster.

=/\=

So yeah, dude attacking Willow right now? Not Ted, though Willow doesn't know that, thought you guys might enjoy that twist and the owl is here to stay, I've decided I like the owl

Remember that Xander has an injured leg so he's a bit slower than he would be normally

Traditionally, from what I could glean, Greek warriors liked using spears, swords were sort of a back up "crap my enemy is right here in my face" sort of weapon. Lots of traditional Greek and Roman depictions of Perseus, at least the ones I saw in a few museums, depicted him with a sickle-sword. Willow had Xander dress as what I remember Perseus looking like in the original 1981 version of Clash of the Titans and he had a short bronze sword, like a spatha. So Xander really doesn't have any experience with a claymore but minion vamps aren't going to know that.

Also I'm going to be working on a seriously important life altering project for the foreseeable future, just to let you guys know in case I get a bit reticent.

Finally, I'd really appreciate it if you reviewed and tell me what you thought of the chapter! Please review!


	9. Chapter 9

Sorry it's taken so long.

I don't own Buffy or anything you recognize though I'm pretty sure that Medusa, Perseus and the Greek Pantheon are all free domain characters

=/\=

Cordelia felt a little torn when she'd finished putting salt down as Willow had ordered. On the one hand, she felt anxiety and anger welling up in her and confusion over the whole debacle. Because, really, what the hell was going on? The brunette was fairly sure that Willow had answers but she figured that talking to the girl who was busy _glowing_ the same color as the salt and preventing whoever it was outside from beating down the door further would be a bad thing. But since when did the Computer Queen glow? And what good was pouring salt going to do?

The head cheerleader dismissed those questions almost immediately since the answer to the former was one she honestly didn't care about and as to the latter. If it was working then who cared about anything else? Besides, pouring salt gave her something to do. It let her calm down a little and it was a mindless enough task that she could listen to the other part. That other part felt removed slightly from the situation, that part was analyzing the mess she was in and felt like she could actually do something. It was that part of her that kept her from running outside right now.

Running outside would be bad, she was certain. No matter how much Willow glowed Cordelia didn't believe for a minute that her light show would keep the demon guy out for long, but running outside into the dark would probably be worse than waiting. Waiting, for now, meant there was time for planning. And she was definitely going to plan. She refused to be a damsel in distress, at least not when there wasn't a cute guy around for her to allow the honor of rescuing her. Or for her to save. Recently Cordelia decided that she would be equal opportunity like that. Of course the reason for this, well, while she didn't really want to consciously admit it, she knew that some Halloween Sunnydale weirdness had stuck to her.

As soon as the unconscious admission appeared, Cordelia firmly pushed it back to the deepest recesses of her mind and concentrated on the part of her that was evaluating and planning. First thing was first, once the salt was finished being poured, and she later questioned Willow about why the girl would have so much salt in her house, she would call for back up.

The salt was poured as Willow had instructed and Cordelia chanced a look at the girl with snakes for hair. She looked even paler than usual and a thin trickle of blood had begun to run from her nose and there was a bloodstain on her clothes around her shoulder. Cordelia pursed her lips in a frown for a brief moment before schooling her face back into the pleasant, non-wrinkle forming, expression that was more common for her and she went for the phone.

Just before she took the phone in hand, Cordelia chanced a glance upwards and hesitated for a moment. But it didn't take long for the Queen of Sunnyhell High to make up her mind.

"Whoever's up there that's _not _evil," Cordelia began firmly, unwilling to believe otherwise, "you'd better help us get out of here alive."

She waited a beat longer, silently glaring at the ceiling as if to emphasize her order and, when the roof didn't fall in and the demon thing that was trying to get in continued to fail, Cordelia called for more temporal help.

The nurse who answered was super rude and unhelpful in the May Queen's opinion. Like it was so hard to find the only stuffy English guy there? But she managed to extract the promise that they would get an S.O.S. to Giles under pain of the Chase family deciding that certain local, hospital related charities didn't require money as much as other charities. Being a Sunnydale Chase had its perks.

The May Queen ran down the situation. There was a creature or something outside that wanted to kill them. Willow was keeping the thing outside. There was _maybe _help on the way in the form of the librarian. Cordelia had no illusions that the other girl would be able to hold the creature out for much longer. And the geek girl's glowing was all well and good but Cordelia found it easier to place her trust in a solid barrier.

While Willow chanted, Cordelia made to move furniture in front of all the doors. The couch was too heavy for her to deal with on her own but she could move chairs and other bits and pieces by herself easily enough. Unfortunately, there wasn't much furniture around to be moved and again Cordelia found herself with nothing left to do except hope that whatever the geek girl was doing would hold and that she wouldn't bleed out before help could arrive.

The cheerleader huffed. Sitting around worrying wouldn't help anything and she might start to develop wrinkles!

Rather than dwell on something that could potentially ruin her skin, the head cheerleader decided to poke around the house. She hadn't been to the Rosenberg house since Willow's eighth birthday when Harmony had insisted in lighting the candles for the birthday cake and how somehow managed to instead set alight the puppy that the Rosenbergs had gotten for their daughter. The dog had survived but the Rosenbergs had decided that if Willow had friends like that then she was obviously too immature for a dog and had given the injured and disfigured puppy away. Cordelia wistfully remembered ignoring her friend for a whole month until the bottle blonde claimed she had apologized to the geek girl. Harmony may have been one of her longest lasting followers, but Willow was born and bred in Sunnydale, just like Cordelia herself. Harmony, though she'd been around since kindergarden, was technically an outsider by virtue of having been born in nowhere-ville, Kansas. Though the May Queen didn't like to admit it, Sunnydale natives had to stick together, at least a little.

She made her way the stairs and poked around the house, peeking into the master bedroom and noted that the Rosenburg matriarch was there, still asleep but Mr. Rosenburg was missing. That didn't really raise any flags to the high school girl. She'd seen her dad sneak out at night all the time. She wondered how it was that the older woman actually could sleep with the racket but she caught sight of a familiar bottle on their dresser before she closed the door and continued to look around the house. Her father had her mother use the same sort of sleeping pills that the Rosenbergs apparently used. Mrs. Chase had more than once slept through quite a few things because of those pills.

The cheerleader opened and checked the other few rooms upstairs and noted that Willow had a boy living with her for a while.

"Ick," Cordelia wrinkled her nose at the mess in what had probably been the guest room but was now obviously a teenage boy's room, Xander's judging by the travesties of fashion hanging in the open closet. There were also a few daggers lying around, a crossbow with a few dozen bolts, and a short sword. There was also a shield that was so well polished Cordelia could see herself in it. She paused for a moment and then took one of the daggers before she checked her reflection in the mirror shield. Her make up needed a little fixing, some of her mascara had gotten smudged and her hair was a mess after all that running.

Of course, beauty like hers didn't need that much maintenance. The mirror was also useful in helping her decide which belt and sheath she could borrow until she could commission a better one for her new dagger.

Willow's room was just as she pictured the geek girl's room, except for the fish. Those were a little bit of a surprise. No posters of popular bands or hot guys, if she used make up she didn't keep it anywhere in plain sight, a closet filled with fuzzy, shapeless sweaters and proof that the red head was in true need of a fashion guru, a real one instead of Buffy. Cordelia snorted as she imagined what the great Buffy would try to persuade the shy girl to wear. The May Queen prided herself on being able to dress herself in what best suited _her_ and force it to be fashionable rather than dressing according to what other people thought was fashionable. After all, she was Cordelia Chase and when it came to her own clothes, she was confident that she knew best. She had no doubt that Buffy would just try to get the red head to dress in the blonde's clothes, believing that Willow could just pull off the same style as the Slayer. But, unlike the blonde vampire slayer, Cordelia also knew that not everyone could pull off her look.

Furthermore, Cordelia was of the opinion that not even Buffy could pull off the look she aspired to and if she couldn't pull it off then she shouldn't try to make others follow her example. The brunette girl allowed herself a smirk. She could allow for the fact that Buffy was the one who knew how to punch and kick and get rid of icky things, but just because she could beat someone up didn't mean she was a true leader, especially not a leader in fashion.

The cheerleader paused in her consideration of Willow's wardrobe. There were a lot of fuzzy things, a lot of extremely unfortunate patterns, a great number of hats, and plenty of things that were more suited to a ten year old than a fifteen year old. But not _everything_ was worthless. If it was used in different combinations than what the red head had been using then she might even look presentable.

As she looked around the room she noticed that the window doors had a balcony and Cordelia stepped outside and discovered that she could see the attacker around the corner if she leaned over slightly.

She was surprised to see that it wasn't the creep that she and Willow had escaped from before. It was a new creep, this one even bigger than any of the football players at school and much more obviously nasty than the other guy. He had dark, permed hair of all things and he dressed like he had walked off a page of "Mooks R Us", all dark and greasy and ick. He continued beating against the door, like doing the same thing over and over again was actually going to work. In a creature of lesser will and deliberate fashion consciousness the sound she made would have been called a snort. But Cordelia Chase didn't snort. She simply made a sound of disapproval regarding the monster's actions.

However, the sound seemed to catch the monster's attention. He backed away from the door so he could look up at her and snarl, his one eye gleaming inhumanely in the pale moonlight. Scar tissue and what Cordelia hoped wasn't pus made up the area where another eye should have been. Serious Ick city.

Cordelia backed away from the balcony and returned to the house as the creep let out a howl and began to slam against the door with even more enthusiasm than before. She could almost feel the house shutter from the barrage of blows. The cheerleader almost screamed with frustration. There had to be something she could do!

That little part of her that had appeared after Halloween practically screamed as she paced around Willow's room. All she had to do was look up and her eyes alighted on a solution. There, next to the computer, lay another crossbow.

She considered the weapon. She knew the basics of how to load and fire it but she wasn't sure that her aim would be good enough to get rid of the monster outside from the angle on the balcony. She also wasn't entirely confident in the punching power the crossbow would provide since really, loading and shooting was about as far as her knowledge of crossbows went. Yeah, it was great against vamps but vamps were kinda fragile. She'd seen other types of demons in Giles's dusty old books and knew that some of them had natural armor. This guy was a new demony thing. She considered her options and, with a deep breath, Cordelia made her decision.

Running out into the dark, running without a plan and without a direction, would be the stupidest possible action. Sneaking out, however, with a direct goal in mind, well, that might not be quite as stupid.

She took the crossbow and went downstairs. She took a moment to check on Willow and wasn't at all encouraged by what she saw. The girl was bleeding and paler than ever and her snakes hung limply on her head and some of the floor around her was burning. She was so still she looked almost like a statue.

"What sort of shampoo could she use?" Cordelia wondered briefly but then set aside the matter for later. And there would be a later, Cordelia intended to make sure of it. She looked more closely at the burning floor around Willow and smiled. The floor didn't seem to be burning because of Willow's spell. It burned whenever Willow's blood dripped onto it. Something about Willow's blood had apparently become toxic. She quickly pressed the head of each crossbow bolt against the patch over her clothes where the blood oozed, wincing and making faces the whole time because it was definitely icky, but she was pleased when the blood didn't seem inclined to eat through the ammunition immediately.

She moved with almost unnatural silence and stealth as she circled around the house, keeping low and in the shadows while her target raged against the barrier that Willow held. However, she concentrated so hard on not being seen that she completely overlooked the dull figure of a very ordinary looking man who was watching everything from his position across the street. Cordelia only had eyes for her own goal.

She shot him twice, just to be sure, and the creature fell, bloody foam on its lips. Cordelia was almost disappointed with how easy it was and shot it once more for good measure. She was almost tempted to search the creature to see if she could find out anything about it but it was a dead body and she wasn't going anywhere near it for that reason. She made a face and decided that when the librarian arrived, he could have the gross task of searching the body and figuring out why it had attacked her. After all, it was practically his job to do that sort of stuff.

Cordelia didn't turn her back from the corpse as she went for the door to get Willow. The geek girl needed to go to the hospital and the best way would be to use the Rosenburg car, if it was there. Cordelia smirked slightly, she was going to drive!

Her plans were somewhat paused when she discovered that Willow's barrier spell, or whatever, was still in effect and she couldn't get back into the house. Cordelia scowled and turned to pound on the door.

"Willow Rosenburg you let me in right now!" Cordelia demanded shrilly. As she pounded on the door, the man across the door took this as his chance.

While the May Queen was distracted, he crossed the street and went around to the back of the house. Like a vampire who was now gravel in the driveway, this man had a can of gas and a lighter. Unlike the unfortunate vampire, this man was successful as he carefully spread the accelerant and a few other special ingredients around the back of the house. He grinned thinly as he took a step back and tossed the lit lighter onto the pool of accelerant. The flames burst into being, bright tongues of orange and yellow, blue and white and green all raging to eat the house and get the girl inside. Enormous billows of smoke writhed around the flames and managed to snake past the protections of the novice witch. The man waited for a minute longer, ignoring the shouting Cordelia on the other side of the house. He made sure that the smoke at least was entering the house, and then he left, certain his mission was accomplished.

=/\=

So Cordelia was very determined that she was already awesome pre-Halloween, but, if you didn't catch the hint, she may have some added awesome

Again, sorry for the long absence! Graduation, weddings (not mine though), new job, broken computer which isn't fixed I'm just learning to work around the breaks until I can afford to fix it, just a lot of things one after the other


End file.
